Little High School Musical
by Joyful-Sound
Summary: What if High School Musical really had been like kindergarten?. Read as the gang of four year olds has Gabriella introduced to them. Follow them through snacktime, music class, and preschool drama! COMPLETE
1. The Meeting

**Full Summary: What if Gabriella moved to Albuquerque, but began attending East Preschool? You got it! HSM, just a little smaller. Okay, A LOT smaller! ****It might not follow the exact story line, since some stuff in the movie is restricted as a high school activity. Actually, there probably won't be many songs on here, considering that I don't think four-year-old singers will sound very good… And couple pairings are limited because it is only preschool, but it hints Troyella (and various others. As I said, it's just hints and not really anything major). Anyway, enjoy! This is in third person, so no real point of view. (Disclaimer: -insert some witty way of saying I don't own HSM here-)**

"Gabriella, honey, please don't run off." Said the concerned mother to her four-year-old daughter. Gabriella was squirming around in her chair, bored as can be. The twosome was at the Albuquerque mall to see what the town could offer.

"Can we please go into the book store?" The four-year-old pleaded with puppy dog eyes.

"How could I refuse?" Ms. Montez just couldn't believe that her daughter wanted to go into bookstores over toy stores. She had no idea where the bookstore was, since they had just gotten all moved in a few days ago. She and Gabriella had moved every where over the past three years of her life. Luckily, her company had promised her that this was a stationary job, so Gabriella could grow up in a stable environment.

Gabriella obediently kept a hold of her mother's hand, weaving through the crowds. Finally, they came to a map of the mall. The bookstore was just a few stores down, so they steered over in that direction.

"Stay in the little kids section, and do not run off." Gabriella's mother warned.

"Okay mommy." She shyly nodded, and skipped to the area where the little kids books (sound effects and all) were located. Mrs. Montez continued to watch her, browsing in the romance novel section.

Gabriella picked up a book about an adventurous dog, when a boy with blonde hair that came over with crossed arms. He sat down and pouted, tossing around a squishy orange and black ball.

"Hi…" The boy said, noticing Gabriella's presence.

"Hi. I'm Gabriella. What's your name?" She asked. The boy looked up and she noticed that he had beautiful electric blue eyes.

"I'm Troy. Nice to meet you Gabr… Gabri…" Troy was having difficulty pronouncing Gabriella's name.

"Call me Gabi."

"Okay Gabi." He said with a weak smile.

"Wanna read my book with me?" Gabriella offered him a seat on the other side of the book she was looking at.

"You can read?" Troy asked, interested.

"Yeah. My mommy taught me a month ago." Gabriella turned back to the first page. She could only read simple words, but this book was basic enough for her to read.

"That's cool." Troy took the seat by Gabriella. _He thinks I'm cool! _Gabriella shyly smiled and started reading out loud.

"Wanna press the sound buttons?" She asked, trying to make him feel like he was helping.

"Oh, okay." The boy smiled, pushing the sound effect buttons every time she would come to a stop where a picture indicated that it needed sound. Halfway through the book, the new twosome's mothers came to get them.

"Have you found a friend, Gabi?" Her mother smiled, a bit amused.

"Uh-huh. His name is Troy." She replied. Troy's mother was there also, with another slightly amused smile.

"I see you have found a friend, Troy." She let out a small laugh. Troy nodded. The mothers smiled again, and they put the book up.

"I'm Danielle Bolton." Troy's mother introduced herself to Mrs. Montez.

"I'm Laura Montez. It's a pleasure." The mothers got their two children, and began shopping with the two kids.

"So, how old is Troy?" Asked Ms. Montez.

"Four. He's starting kindergarten next year." Mrs. Bolton replied.

"So is Gabriella. We just moved here from California."

"Oh, wow. Why such a big move?"

"My company that I work for. They've moved us two everywhere. Luckily, my company has promised this as a permanent job. I want Gabriella to grow up in a stable environment." Ms. Montez nodded and smiled. "What about you? You seem to know your way around Albuquerque. I assume that you live here?"

"Yes. My husband Jack and I are teachers at one of the high schools. Troy has lived here all his life. I'd be happy to show you the town, if you would like."

"No, thank you. It's a sweet gesture, but I've still got some papers to sign on the house. Gabriella and I have lived so many places, we've never stayed anywhere longer than four months. It's been lots of mother-daughter time."

"That explains how she knows how to read. She seems very talented." Danielle smiled back.

"Oh, yes. I taught her when I was given time off work to get the moving done. My husband died shortly after Gabriella was born, so we've just grown used to having each other. Enough about me, I see Troy seems to like basketball." Even the two four-year-olds were listening now.

"I'm sorry about your husband. And yes, Troy is Mr. Basketball. I personally think that Jack puts too much pressure on him about it, but I don't have much of a say in stuff like this." She laughed.

"Kids these days. They never cease to amaze me." The mothers nodded, while they didn't notice that their children began another conversation.

"You don't have a daddy?" Troy asked with hints of 'sorry' in his eyes.

"Yeah." Gabriella shyly nodded. The two were latched onto their mother's hands, scrunched in between the talking adults.

"Oh. I couldn't imagine not having a daddy. He helps me with basketball." Troy said.

"Basketball?" Gabriella tilted her head slightly.

"You know, the big orange ball that you get into the really tall nets?" Troy showed her his squishy version of one.

"Ohhh, I know. Is it hard?"

"Kinda. My daddy says I'm really good, though. So does my best friend Chad."

"Sounds like fun. My mommy says I'm good at reading." The two fell silent.

Troy was growing comftorable talking to Gabi. She didn't just say encouraging words like adults did about basketball or start talking about how hard he worked or something else like that strange girl Sharpay did in his preschool class did. She didn't roll her eyes like that smart girl Taylor did whenever he was near, either.

Before Troy could ask her what preschool she was going to, they came to the parking lot.

"Thank you for all of your help Danielle!" Laura smiled warmly and started for the directing of their car.

"It was no trouble. Hope you enjoy Albuquerque!" She waved.

"Bye." Troy and Gabriella whispered to each other.

That night, Gabriella snuggled under her pink flower bedspread thinking about the boy from the mall. He seemed really nice. He was also the first person her age to ever think that reading wasn't 'weird' or 'too smart'. She liked him, but she frowned when she realized how big the town was, and how seeing one person again would be impossible…

Troy was also getting under his basketball-theme bedspread, thinking about that girl. Gabriella was her name, and he had been practicing saying it all afternoon until he finally got it. His father had questioned him about it, and Troy said that he had met the girl at the mall, and he wanted to be able to say her full name.

"That's my boy. Once he sets his mind to something, he tries and tries to get it. Like basketball." His father had smiled encouragingly a few hours early. That's what Troy didn't like: how adults would always relate him to his rising talent to basketball. It was true, he had moved up to the big kid basketball net, since his little kid one was already raised to it's highest point, but he just wanted to be Troy the East Preschooler. Not Troy, the basketball star.

The two sighed around the same time. Little did they know, a whole new surprise waited for them at the doors of East Preschool the next morning.

**Do you like it? Yes, all HSM characters will star in this! I tried my best to put this in a good four-year-old POV without making the story unreadable. Anyway, please review what you think! I'd like some feedback to see how many people are interested in hearing more! Short start, but the other chapters will be longer, I promise!**


	2. Reunited

**You guys are such awesome reviewers!**

**Gabriella's First Day of Preschool (following Gabriella)**

"But mommy! What if they think I'm a freak?" Gabriella whined. It was a few hours into school already, but Gabriella and her mother were running a bit late.

"Why in the world would they think you are a freak?" Ms. Montez asked curiously.

"'Cause I can read." She squeaked.

"Honey, I know they won't think you're a freak." Her mother soothingly told her. They got to the office of the small preschool, near the elementary across the street.

"Hello. Are you Laura Montez? To sign in your daughter?" The lady at the desk smiled warmly.

"Yes. This is Gabriella." Ms. Montez signed a sign-in sheet.

"How old is she?"

"Four. Starts kindergarten next year." Ms. Montez replied. The lady nodded, and spoke to Gabriella.

"You'll be in Miss Shannon's room." She smiled warmly again at Gabriella, who shyly looked up.

"Here's her stuff. I've got a couple of books in there that she should like. There's also another pair of clothes." Ms. Montez handed her a bag, then turned to give her daughter a hug.

"I'll see you later sweetie, okay?" They broke the hug and Ms. Montez walked out the door nearly in tears. She hated to see her daughter unhappy. This was for the best, though; a permanent home.

Gabriella took the lady's hand (her name is Mrs. Carol) and followed her down the hallway to a classroom big enough for 15 kids to freely run around in. It had a puzzle version of hopscotch on the floor, a plastic play place, a fake kitchen, and lots of cubbies. It was playtime outside, so Mrs. Carol set down Gabriella's bag in an open cubby, and led Gabriella out to the playground.

"You're name is Gabriella. That's a very pretty name." Mrs. Carol commented.

"Thanks." Gabriella nearly whispered. She was shaking nervously. "You can call me Gabi. Lots of people do."

"Okay, I'll call you Gabi from now on." Mrs. Carol reached a section of the playground that a group of four-year-olds were happily playing at.

"Here is your new student." Mrs. Carol told a young woman that was in her early twenties.

"And who is this?" Ms. Shannon asked cheerfully.

"Gabriella." Gabriella was still whispering.

"That's a nice name."

"Thanks. You can call me Gabi, though."

"Sure thing. We just got out here, so there's plenty of time to play outside!" Ms. Shannon motioned to all the playing kids. Gabriella walked over to a sandbox and took a seat on the edge. She took her first glance at all of her classmates.

On the swings were two girls, one with dark hair, and one with reddish-brown hair. They were swinging really low, like they were afraid to go any higher. The one with darker hair had her hair in a ponytail, while the other one had hers braided down the back.

Gabriella looked over to the wooden play structure where a boy and a girl were standing on top of. They looked a lot alike, and the girl was the only girl on the playground wearing her hair down. Gabriella wrapped the hair from one of her pigtails around her finger. The other girl was looking all over the playground with a grouchy look. Something about her made Gabriella not want to have anything to do with her.

Cheering caught her attention next, and she looked over to a small concrete play area. Three boys were playing with a bright orange ball, putting it into a plastic net that hung slightly over their heads. Two were arguing, one of them had short black hair, the other had very big dark brown hair. The other one looked upset and just stood on the sidelines. Some other kids were on the playground, but they were all running so fast, Gabriella couldn't keep up with her eyes.

Gabriella walked closer to the group of boys.

"Chad! That was mean!" The one with short hair was saying. "You pushed Jason on purpose!"

"I did not! He was in my way to make the basket!" The boy with big hair said. "It's not my fault he wasn't looking!" The two glared at each other.

"It's okay, Zeke." The one standing off to the side said. "I'm okay. I just got a scrape, that's all."

"You sure, Jason?"

"Yeah."

"What's going on?" Gabriella heard the voice coming from the building. She looked up, and saw the one boy she had least expected to be here. He must have been inside doing something all this time.

"_Troy_." She breathed. The two arguing boys filled him in on what was happening. He had just gotten back from the bathroom with another teacher. Gabriella was too scared to go over and say hi. 

"It makes you sick to watch, don't it?" Gabriella jumped as the voice behind her spoke. The girl in the ponytail was right behind her.

"I guess." She replied, unsure of what to say.

"I'm Taylor. You must be new." Taylor led her over to the swings.

"I'm Gabriella. Everyone calls me Gabi, though." Gabriella didn't say anything about reading, afraid her new friend would think it was weird, too.

"Welcome, Gabi!" Taylor smiled and sat on the swing. The reddish-brown headed girl looked up from her place on the swing. "This is Kelsi."

"I'm Gabi." Gabriella tried to smile, and Kelsi gave her a weak smile in return. Taylor started talking to her about all the people to watch out for, and Gabriella listened intently.

"…and the music teacher is evil…" Taylor continued. "But the worst of all, is _those two_." She pointed to the two blondes on the wooden play structure. The girl looked like she had just come from talking to someone at the sandbox.

"Who're they?" Gabriella's eyes widened.

"Sharpay and Ryan. They're twins."

"Ooh! What's so bad about them?" Gabriella tilted her head.

"It's not really Ryan. It's Sharpay. She doesn't like anybody that's not good at acting." Taylor replied.

"Why?" Gabriella asked shyly. She still wasn't comftorable around other kids.

"I dunno. They just don't." Taylor shrugged. They started swinging, and Gabriella started going higher and higher. She noticed that Taylor and Kelsi were hesitantly following her swinging antics. Gabriella took one glance at the basketball court, and could have sworn she caught the eyes of Troy.

**Earlier (following Troy)**

Troy listened to Chad and Zeke's arguments. Chad had pushed Jason down trying to make a basket. Zeke didn't like that, because he wanted to play fair. Finally, the two settled it, and they got back to a two on two game; Troy and Chad against Zeke and Jason.

The boys were taking a break, and Troy sat down by the sandbox.

"You're _so _good at basketball!" Sharpay exclaimed from behind Troy. He jumped in surprise. _Why me? _He silently thought. Sharpay had been getting really annoying the last few weeks.

"Um… Thanks?" Troy smiled weakly, pouring sand in a bucket.

"What'cha doin' all by yourself?" Sharpay sat down next to Troy.

"Playing in the sand."

"I could have guessed that." Sharpay tried to help him, but he ignored her, like he always did. He found girls annoying. Well, except for that one girl at the mall, but he'd probably never see her again.

"You're no fun!" Sharpay threw down her plastic shovel and stomped back off to her usual perch on the wooden play structure. Troy sighed and got up to go play some more basketball.

He was in the middle of a play, when he looked over at the swing set. There were three girls on there, besides the usual two. Troy squinted and saw someone he least expected to see.

_Gabriella! _He thought excitedly. He got eye contact with her, but Zeke stole the ball from him, so Troy went back to the game. He forgot for a second, because Chad was yelling at him for letting the ball slip past them. The teacher then warned Chad about the yelling and announced it was time to go inside.

Troy watched as Gabriella walked inside with Taylor and Kelsi, smiling like she fit in.

_Figures. _Troy thought as he followed his friends inside. Taylor was probably making her think he was a bad person.

**Snack Time (following both)**

Gabriella took a seat by herself at the plastic table in the corner. Taylor and Kelsi were still asleep from their naps. The only other kids up were the basketball guys and Sharpay. Troy noticed her presence and walked over to her with his snack.

"I 'member you." Troy said, acting as casual as possible.

"So do I." Gabriella looked down at her empty napkin. Sharpay had taken her snack when she wasn't looking, then giving them to Troy. Gabriella had been too scared to say anything. She was finally understanding the ways of Sharpay Evans.

"So you're going to East Preschool?" Troy asked and Gabriella nodded.

"My mom would have brought me earlier, but we were running a little late."

"Where's your snack?" Troy asked, concerned, finally noticing the empty napkin.

"Sharpay took them." She nervously whispered.

"That's mean. Here, you can have the ones she gave me." Troy handed her most of his crackers, obviously not seeing the connection. Gabriella retured it with a smile and they began to talk a little bit...

Sharpay was glaring at the two from the other corner. She woke up Ryan, who groggily listened to her complain.

"They're sharing a snack! How DARE she!" Sharpay said, louder than she meant to. The teacher came over to them.

"Is there a problem Sharpay? You need to let your brother sleep."

"No there isn't, Miss Shannon. I just wanted to share my snack with Ryan." Sharpay said innocently.

"Okay…" Ms. Shannon walked back to her desk, and continued to keep a close eye on Sharpay.

"What's wrong?" Ryan was zoning in and out.

"Troy! The new girl! _Sharing snacks!_" Sharpay said sharply.

"Is that something bad?" Ryan asked, confused.

"Troy's MINE!" Sharpay pouted.

"But you don't ever talk to him…" Ryan shrugged.

"He's still mine. He shouldn't be talking to the new girl… I have to do something…" Sharpay thought as a smirk came across her small lips.

**Are you guys liking it so far? Any suggestions? I'd love to hear them!**


	3. Playtime Pairs

**Sorry about the delay in updating this. I was really busy yesterday! This chapter takes place about thirty minutes after the previous one. I'm squeezing lots of events into this one preschool day!**

**Free time in the playroom (following everyone)**

Gabriella and Troy had gone off into their own little groups of friends, taking glances at each other on occasion during playtime. Sharpay and Ryan took to the plastic playhouse in the front of the room, where Sharpay was sitting on her 'throne' that was the only chair inside the playhouse; overlooking the playroom (It was one of those that kids climb up to get into). Gabriella, Taylor and Kelsi were playing with the dolls in the far corner. Troy and his friends were building with Lego blocks on the opposite side of the room.

"Well, at least they're not _talking_ to each other again." Sharpay sneered.

"What's your problem, Shar?" Ryan was getting tired of hearing his sister complain. "They were just talking. Trying to be friends."

"My problem?" Sharpay once again said a bit too loud, and most of the class glanced over at the playhouse.

"Sharpay Evans, what is the matter?" Their teacher shook her head.

"I'm sorry. We were just in a teenie weenie little argument." Sharpay smiled sweetly again. Miss Shannon sighed. She couldn't really do anything, since there didn't really seem to be a problem.

"Okay. Just please don't cause too big of a fuss."

"Sure thing, Ms. Shannon!" Sharpay smiled again, then turned to glare at her brother. "My problem is that if the new girl decides to be friends with Troy, then the smart people will think they can interfere with the sports people, and us music people will have no where to go! It's madness!"

"You're taking this way to seri… seriou…" Ryan struggled with saying 'seriously'.

"Whatever." Sharpay rolled her eyes again. "I've got a plan, anyway."

"What's that?" Ryan began to worry about how bad this 'plan' would be…

**Meanwhile…**

"What's your doll's name, Gabi?" Kelsi asked when they got back to playing after Sharpay's little outburst.

"Rose." She smiled, dressing her doll in a pink dress. "What's yours?"

"Kim." Kelsi replied, putting a purple dress on her doll.

"What's yours, Taylor?" Gabriella turned to her new friend.

"Taylor." Taylor cracked into a grin.

"But it's 'posed to be a fake name!" Gabriella giggled.

"But I like my name!" Taylor giggled along with her.

"Okay, but just this once." Kelsi was also giggling.

**The Lego block corner…**

"It's a basketball!" Chad proudly displayed his creation. It was made out of all the red blocks in the entire set.

"But it's red… And… Square!" Zeke pointed out.

"It's kinda hard to make a circle from square blocks, ya know! There were no orange blocks, either!" Chad defended.

"That's enough!" Troy said, breaking the argument. "Zeke, what did you make?"

"A ship," He replied, pointing to a mound of brown and black blocks. "But I messed up, so I had to start over."

"What about you, Jason?" Zeke asked.

"I made a tower!" Jason pointed to a bunch of different color blocks stacked together to form a small tower.

"That's cool!" Chad said, going over to it.

"Chad, don't-" Troy was cut off by the sound of the mini-tower crashing down as Chad touched it.

"Chad!" Jason wailed.

"What is the matter over here?" The teacher walked over.

"Chad knocked down my tower." Jason sniffled.

"I think we all need a little break from each other." Their teacher stated, getting an idea. "Class, gather up in the center of the room!"

The class all put away their toys, reluctantly coming to the teacher. **(Let's say there's more than just the HSM crew in the class) **

"I've been seeing some arguments in our playgroups already. I'm going to pair you all up with a partner, and each of you will find something fun to do together for the last half of playtime. We will do this for the rest of the year, until all of us can get along! Also, these will be your partners for class projects for the rest of the year."

The class was full of protests, but Ms. Shannon took her class role sheet, and started pairing people.

"Let's see, Zack and Jamie…"

"Zeke and Sharpay…"

"What?" The four-year-old screeched.

"Sharpay." The teacher gave her a warning glance, so Sharpay sighed and went to sit by Zeke.

"Ryan and Ashley…" Ryan shrugged and got up to sit next to Ashley.

"Troy and Gabriella…" Troy got up excitedly to sit next to Gabriella.

"Jason and Kelsi…" Jason didn't even know who Kelsi was, so Kelsi shyly raised her hand. Jason sighed and went to sit with his new partner. A few more names were called, and the final pair was called.

"Last, but not least, Chad and Taylor."

"But she's a _girl_!" Chad said in disgust.

"He's a _boy_!" Taylor cringed.

"All of these pairs are boy/girl. I'm sure you two aren't as bad as you think each other are!"

"Fine." Chad grumbled, walking with Taylor to an empty spot. Troy and Gabriella were at the bookshelf already.

"What book do you want?" Gabriella grinned.

"There's one about a prince I really liked." Troy responded.

"Which one is it?" Gabriella asked, taking random books off the shelf.

"This one." He pointed to a book with a fairy tale-like cover. Gabriella took it off the shelf, and opened it.

"Long, long ago…" She began.

"Umm, Gabriella…" Troy nervously said.

"What?" She asked sweetly.

"Could you… you…"

"Go on…"

"Teach me how to read?" Troy nervously smiled. Gabriella nodded.

"'Course I will!" She giggled. "I might not be a very good teacher, though…"

The two giggled, while Gabriella went over the sounds of each letter with him, slowly teaching him how to read the book; while the other pairs weren't having that much luck.

"I can't believe I was paired with a girl." Chad groaned.

"I can't believe you are so… so… Ugh!" Taylor couldn't find a nice word to insult him with.

"You can't even find a good word to use." Chad rolled his eyes.

"Can we at least pretend to have fun? So the teacher will stop the assignment early?" Taylor suggested, getting out the dolls.

"Oh, no! I am NOT playing with some girly dolls!" Chad exclaimed in disgust.

"Well, I'm NOT playing with stupid blocks!" Taylor retorted.

"They're not blocks! They're LEGOS!" Chad pouted, they sat down in disagreement again, which is about how Zeke and Sharpay were doing…

"They're _reading_!" Sharpay said to herself.

"Excuse me?" Zeke asked.

"Nothing." Sharpay rolled her eyes.

"I really like your hair today." Zeke commented.

"Whatever." Sharpay rolled her eyes again. A long pause followed, which brings us to Jason and Kelsi.

"Umm… You're Kelsi…" Jason started.

"You're Jason…" Kelsi continued.

"Do you want to go to the video corner?" He asked, seeing the TV was open.

"Not really." Kelsi shyly strayed away.

"Oh, okay." Jason and Kelsi silently played by themselves, occasionally trying to make small talk. Moving onto the final pair…

"Ashley, do you like music class?" Ryan smiled at his partner.

"Not really. Miss Darby **(Haha, sound familiar? XD) **is really mean to me." Ashley replied. She had light brown hair, that was pulled back into two braids behind her head.

"Oh. She really likes me and my sister." Ryan had always noticed she favored his sister and him, but he never thought others had noticed.

"You're sister doesn't seem to like many people…"

"She doesn't. She makes me follow her around."

"Why don't you make other friends?" Ashley asked with interest.

"She says since she's older by 3 minutes, she gets to boss me around."

"That's mean." Ashley's eyes widened. "Why doesn't she like many people?"

"Sharpay likes to be in control, ya know? She doesn't like anyone that will go out of their place in life." Ryan stated. He could never imagine that Sharpay's worst nightmare was happening, right there in the playroom.

**Not the easiest chapter to write, but hope you liked it!**


	4. Music Class

**Sorry about the terribly long delays between updates! I had to get the next chapter of 'Always Felt This Way' written before I could get to putting this chapter up.**

**Lunch**

Gabriella was somewhat disappointed when playtime was over. The teacher brought them to lunch, and the group quickly got their plates with their perfectly balanced meals on them. The kids never really complained about the food, since the ladies that served the food were all young and mole-free.

"Can you _believe _that he thought I would ever play with blocks?" Taylor scoffed. "He's so weird!"

"That's strange," Kelsi took a bit of her carrots. "Me and Jason were just really quiet."

"What did you and Troy do?" Taylor started eating her sandwich.

"We… um…" Gabriella fidgeted, trying to figure out something to tell them besides reading. What if they thought it was weird?

"They were looking at a book." Kelsi replied for her.

"Troy could sit still long enough to look at a bunch of pictures?" Taylor questioned, and Gabriella nodded.

"I thought you two were talking." Kelsi added hesitantly. Gabriella had the intention to glare at Kelsi, but didn't, afraid of losing some of her only friends. Taylor looked at Gabriella with interest.

"Can you read?" She asked with more interest.

"Y…Yes." Gabriella blushed.

"This is so neat!" Taylor grinned. "So can I!"

"You can?"

"Me and Kelsi can! We don't like to mention it, because people think it's weird!"

"I know!" Gabriella grinned.

"Wait," Taylor's eyes narrowed. "Basket-head doesn't think it's weird?"

"Basket-head?" Gabriella didn't know who that was.

"Troy. That's what I call him."

"Oh, right," Gabriella sighed. "No, he doesn't."

"That's a first." Taylor rolled her eyes.

"He's not that bad." Gabriella shrugged.

Taylor's eyes narrowed again. "Is there something you're not telling us?"

"No," Gabriella quickly responded. "We just met during playtime."

"Okay." Taylor shrugged and they went on eating. The class finished eating, and their teacher announced that it was time for music time.

"Is this the teacher you don't like?" Gabriella whispered to Taylor on their way to the music room.

"Uh-huh," Taylor shuddered and nodded. "She only likes Sharpay and Ryan."

"Why?" Gabriella asked, as Kelsi ran up behind them; she had to go to the bathroom right before lunch ended.

"I dunno." Taylor shrugged.

"Are you talking about Ms. Darby?" Kelsi added.

"Yep." Gabriella nodded. Just as Kelsi was about to reply, they got to the music room, and the line of four-year-olds quieted immediately.

"Welcome, children." Came a voice that sounded older than the woman standing in front of them did.

"Hello, Ms. Darby." The class repeated like brainwashed robots. They were ushered inside, and each kid took a seat on the mats laid out in perfect rows on the floor. Gabriella shook nervously again.

"Today we will be working with keeping a beat together. I will had you all wood blocks to work with," Ms. Darby took out a stack of wood blocks and mallets. "Any excess noise, and you will be put in time-out."

The teacher picked Sharpay and Ryan to hand them out. As Sharpay handed Gabriella hers, she purposely let the mallet slip. It knocked the wood block head on, making the noise cut through the silence.

"Who was that?" Ms. Darby snapped.

"It was Gabriella Montez, Ms. Darby." Sharpay smirked at her now terrified classmate.

"Who?"

"The new girl." Sharpay answered, pointing the Gabriella, who sat in shock. All eyes ventured to the two girls in the middle of the class.

"Yes, yes. Please come up here, Gabriella." Gabriella was terrified as ever, and slowly got up to walk up to the teacher.

"Did I say not to make any noise?" Ms. Darby asked Gabriella, with the entire class wide-eyed with terror for Gabriella.

"Yes." Gabriella was shaking uncontrollably.

"Then why did you do that?"

"It… It… was an accident." Gabriella looked down at the floor, hoping her story was believable. She was too scared right now to actually blame Sharpay for it.

"Since you're new, I will let this slide. Don't let it happen again, though." Ms, Darby sent her back to her seat, with a dissatisfied grunt from Sharpay, and the class got to work.

"Well, sadly, it is time for the class to end. Just a reminder, the Halloween play is coming up! Be sure to ask your parents come here after school to sign up. Anyone that tries out will get a role!" Ms. Darby clapped and dismissed the class.

Everyone but Sharpay and Ryan let out sighs of relief when everyone got outside of the class.

"Phew! That was close!" Taylor sighed in relief. "My hand almost slipped on the wood block stick! And Gabriella, that was so brave! I would have screamed if they would have done that to me!"

When they got back to the classroom, all the others commented on how brave Gabriella was. She blushed, hating all the attention this got her. Gabriella hated being the center of attention.

Even Chad came up to Gabriella, shaking his head at how crazy she was. However, Troy never came up. Gabriella shook the disappointment out of her head, realizing that he probably just was her friend for playtime and when he didn't have his other friends there with him.

That was so far from the truth, though. Troy had been too nervous, with Taylor right there. Nothing against her, but he was in a way afraid of her. The more Troy had to do with anything, the more Taylor seemed to hate it.

"Okay, kids. Ready for some time outside?" Ms. Shannon asked the class.

"Yes!" They all replied, hungry for some extra sunshine.

"There's just one catch." Ms. Shannon smiled.

"What's that?" Chad blurted out.

"You have to spend time with your playtime partners. I want you to find out some basic things like: if they have brothers or sisters, if they have pets, just stuff like that."

The kids groaned and paired up, walking to the playground.

"Can you promise to keep a secret?" Troy asked Gabriella, who nodded slowly.

"You kept my secret." She giggled.

"Okay," Troy smiled back. "I have a secret spot where I can go to just think."

"Where is it?" Gabriella's eyes widened.

"It's over here." Troy led her to an overgrown tree with a wooden seat placed on one of the lower branches that was a foot off the ground. It was towards the back of the playground, where many trees grew.

"This is so pretty," Gabriella took a seat next to Troy. "Doesn't Miss Shannon ever wonder where you are?"

"No, you can see through the leaves if you are tall enough. She knows I come here when we take breaks from basketball."

"Oh," Gabriella paused. "So, onto the questions…"

"Do you have any brothers or sisters?" Troy asked first, already knowing the answer.

"No. You knew that." She giggled again.

"Yeah, yeah." Troy smiled back.

"Do you?" Gabriella questioned.

"I have a baby sister." Troy answered.

"What's her name?"

"Casey. She's eight months old." Troy said, proud of himself for remembering how old she was.

"I wish I had a sister."

"No, you don't," Troy shook his head. "She cries a lot."

"But she'll look up to you." Gabriella's eyes sparkled at the thought.

"Nah, she's a girl." Troy winced.

"What's wrong with being a girl?"

"Nothing," Troy quickly corrected. "Anyway, do you have any pets?"

"Yeah. I have a little calico kitten named Lilly."

"Calico?" Troy tilted his head at the unfamiliar word.

"She's white, black, brown and orange spotted."

"Ooh."

"Do you have any pets?" Gabriella asked in response.

"No. My dad's allergic." Troy sighed.

"That's bad."

"Yeah." Troy agreed.

**Chad and Taylor**

When the two were outside, Chad and Taylor sat down on two of the empty swings.

"I still can't believe I was paired with a girl…" Chad mumbled.

"What?" Taylor asked with an eye roll.

"Nothing." Chad spoke.

"So, do you have any brothers or sisters?" Taylor started swinging.

"Yeah. Two brothers and a sister."

"Weird." Taylor mumbled.

"Why?" Chad asked, thinking he knew the answer. As usual, he didn't.

"I have two sisters and a brother."

"Oh, that's-" He cut himself off from saying 'cool', not wanting to act interested. "Weird."

Taylor's face dropping, thinking he was about to act interested. "Any pets?"

"What?" Chad hadn't been paying attention.

"Any pets in your family?" Taylor repeated, louder.

"Three dogs."

"No way!" Taylor squealed, not really meaning to. "I mean, that's also weird. I have three cats."

"Oh…" Chad had actually gotten excited when Taylor had shown interest. _She's just a stupid girl. _He thought to himself. They both started swinging higher, taking occasional glances at each other.

**Sharpay and Zeke**

"I can't find them!" Sharpay overlooked the playground from her perch on the wooden play set.

"Find who?" Zeke asked, climbing the ladder to the set. He wasn't sure if he was supposed to, but he did anyway.

"Nevermind," Sharpay sat down. "Let's get this over with."

"Any brothers or sisters?" Zeke asked. Sharpay rolled her eyes.

"Duh. My brother!"

"Well, sorry. Sheesh, I know that. I was asking about any others." Zeke retorted.

"Whatever," Sharpay said like it was her favorite word. "I have an older sister, Cassandra. She's twelve."

"Twelve?" Zeke asked, interested. "She must be really grown up!"

"She is," Sharpay grinned, taking in all the attention. "She's almost in high school."

"Woah." Zeke sighed. "I'm an only child."

"Okay…"

"Anyway, any pets?" Zeke changed the subject.

"No. Pets are stupid." Sharpay folded her arms.

"I have a hamster, a cat, and two dogs." Zeke said, ignoring the fact that Sharpay had said 'stupid'. He should go to the teacher, but he'd be considered a tattle tail if he did that. Like Chad and Taylor, Zeke and Sharpay fell silent; Zeke tracing the old wood on the play set, Sharpay taking back to her perch, still looking around the playground.

**Jason and Kelsi**

"Any siblings?" They asked at the same time, sitting down on the sandbox.

"No." They again said together.

"Woah…" Jason shook his head.

"Any pets?" Kelsi replied, trying her best to not have to talk that much.

"A rabbit. His name is Eeyore, and he's gray. You?"

"No. Rabbits are so cool though!" Kelsi said, not meaning for the last part to slip out.

"You really think so?" Jason asked, glad that Kelsi was finally talking.

"Yeah. They're so soft and cute."

"He goes to the bathroom in his cage a lot." Jason plugged his nose, imitating how bad it smelt. Kelsi giggled.

"Do you have to clean it?"

"No, my mommy does." Jason grinned.

For the rest of the time, Jason and Kelsi talked about rabbits. They were really starting to connect.

**Ryan and Ashley**

Ashley seemed very peeved at Ryan, who was utterly clueless as to why she was. She ignored him for the majority of the outside time, until finally, Ryan had had it.

"Why won't you talk to me?" He took her shoulder as Ashley attempted to walk off.

"Because your sister got that poor new girl in trouble!" Ashley turned around to face him. "And you're her twin, so you must be like her!"

"Ashley!" Ryan shook his head. "I'm nothing like Sharpay. Sure, I follow her around, but I don't like how she acts!"

"Then why did you let it slide by?" She shot back.

"Well, I didn't see you stand up for her, either." Ryan shook his head again.

"I was too scared." Ashley mumbled.

"And I wasn't?" Ryan said softly.

"But… you're her brother… you shouldn't be afraid…"

"What if I really am?"

"Sorry." Ashley mumbled again.

"It's okay. Now, do you have any brothers or sisters?" Ryan asked, changing the subject as they sat down on the seesaw.

"I have a big brother. He's seven and his name is Robert," Ashley nodded. "What about you?"

"I have a sister named Cassandra. She's twelve."

"Twelve? That's like, grown up!" Ashley stared at Ryan in disbelief.

"Yeah. Sharpay really looks up to her. She even has a _boyfriend._" Ryan added to add a bit of drama.

"Eew! She likes boys?"

"Yeah. That's why Sharpay is starting to act like that."

"Well, Sharpay's weird," Ashley shook her head. "Don't tell her I said that, okay?"

"I pinky promise!" Ryan got off the seesaw, and extended his pinky.

"Okay." Ashley shook his pinky, and they got back to seesawing.

**Everyone**

"Okay everyone! Come inside! It's time to introduce your playtime partner to the class!" Miss Shannon smiled, while the class stared at her in disbelief. They didn't know they were supposed to introduce anybody!

**Finally, this story is taking off. There will be some added fun (Halloween party and some other cool stuff), and the Halloween play is basically replacement of the musical tryouts.**

**Not much of a musical so far; as I didn't plan it to be. But hopefully you guys are still interested in reading it anyway!**


	5. TryOuts

**It's been forever since I last updated! This story is going on a mini-hiatus, since I'm so busy updating my other story, along with having extreme writer's block. Hope you enjoy this chapter! Oh, and I changed the time of the play to November/December because I didn't plan to have this bad writer's block, and I thought the time I would be writing the play would be around Halloween. But it isn't now, and I'm really sorry about the confusion.**

**After School**

Gabriella was pleading for her mom to stay after school, so she could go talk to the music teacher. It was interesting, since her and Troy hadn't really discussed the subject of trying out for the winter play, but she just wanted to see what was going to happen.

Troy was doing the same thing.

The pairs met each other outside the music room, where the mother's recognized each other, and started talking. They let their children go into the music room, while they stood outside the door.

"You came?" Gabriella whispered as they snuck behind a chair in the room.

"Mmhmm." Troy answered.

"Welcome one and all to the winter play try-outs!" Ms. Darby said loudly to the few kids and their parents in the room. "We will start with single auditions, then pairs auditions. Our own Kelsi Neilson can read and write, and her and her parents have put together this whole thing." Kelsi and her parents nervously waved, and they sat down.

"Our first audition is Ashley Bates," She said. "Just do the lines that your parents helped you with."

"I…I…" Ashley stopped, and ran off the stage into her mother's arms. Gabriella picked up the script that the two had dropped while exiting the room. They began reading it as the other kids tried out.

"And finally," Ms. Darby said full of boredom. "Sharpay and Ryan Evans. Please come and show us what the show really should be like. Auditioning for the part of Holly and Jolly."

"Sure thing, Ms. Darby." Sharpay added, going up on the small stage in the room. Ryan hesitantly followed.

"Oh, whatever will we do if there is no tree for Christmas?" Sharpay started dramatically.

"We have the ornaments, now what about the tree?" Ryan continued.

"I know! Let's decorate the tree out front!" Sharpay exclaimed. The two took a bow, and Ms. Darby clapped. Kelsi then approached the two.

"Umm… I was wondering…"

"What?" Sharpay sneered impatiently.

"If you do that part, I thought of it being a more… dramatic and sweet part. With Holly crying and more talking. Brother and sister stuff." Kelsi added quickly. Sharpay glared at her, and turned around.

"I have been in every play I've tried out for. How long have you been doing this?" She sneered on.

"One." Kelsi choked out.

"Then don't _ever _offer suggestions, commentaries, or anything like that to _moy_." She said, self-centeredly. She had no real idea what she had just said, but she had seen something like that on TV before.

Kelsi nervously looked for her parents, seeing all the parents outside.

"Any last minute sign ups? No? Good. Done." Ms. Darby picked up her pile of papers.

"I'd like to try-out Ms. Darby!" Gabriella ran up to her once everyone else had left the room.

"Single auditions are long over with." She said harshly.

"I'll do a pairs audton!" Troy nervously stepped behind Gabriella, mispronouncing 'audition'.

"Troy Bolton?" Ms. Darby questioned, but then sat quiet. "I called for anymore sign-ups, and you never came. End of story."

Gabriella's heart sank and Ms. Darby went to her desk. Kelsi slipped on the stage, falling down. The twosome ran over to her, and helped her up.

"Sharpay and Ryan sure don't seem to like your writing of the play." Troy said, helping her off the mini-stage.

"Mmhmm," She mumbled. "Want to see how the real one is supposed to go?" Troy and Gabriella nodded, remembering the part they had read earlier.

"There isn't a tree this year?" Gabriella started. "This isn't right!" She pretended to cry.

"Aw, Holly, I know. We even had ornaments and everything." He said, smiling and patting Gabriella's back. Gabriella then broke into a smile, dramatizing her idea.

"How about we decorate the tree out front?" Gabriella beamed.

"That's a great idea! Let's go tell Mom and Dad!" Troy finished, and they giggled.

"Troy, Gabriella, you've got a callback. Be here at playtime Friday. Kelsi, give them the final scene to work on." She said, amazed at the two new actors standing in front of her.

"A callback?" Gabriella questioned the unfamiliar word.

"You tied with Ryan and Sharpay." Kelsi responded.

"Ooh." Troy answered, wondering about the word as well. Ms. Darby exited the room, and Kelsi grinned widely.

"I can be here during playtime, recess, lunch, anytime! Since you and Troy are partners, you can read the part together, and then I can work with both of you anytime!" She squeezed into a sentence.

"There you are!" Ms. Montez interrupted. The other parents came in, as their kids filled them in on the events of the day.

**Sharpay and Ryan the next day**

"CALLBACKS!" Sharpay raged outside. They had been informed about this shortly before Outside Time.

"What if this is all a joke? What if we're being puked?" Ryan asked, mispronouncing 'Punk'd'

"It's 'Punk'd'." Sharpay corrected sarcastically.

"Ooh!" Ryan said, ignoring the sarcasm. Sharpay continued to strut down the wooden play set, since it was morning outside time. Troy and Gabriella were nowhere to be found.

"If the school gets Troy and Gabriella to be friends, then the reading dorks go from drool to cool." Sharpay glared at the kids on the playground.

"Then they would have the whole school wired, even in the drama club!" Ryan exclaimed. Kids started to stare at the two, and suddenly, Zeke stepped out of the crowd of preschoolers.

"If Troy wants to go and be friends with Gabriella, then I'll come out too. I help my mom bake."

"What?" Chad screeched.

"I help her back. Cookies, breakfast, even Mac and Cheese."

"Yeah, if Troy's going to step out, I want to say something too." Zac cut in. "I am learning how to play the viola!"

"Cool! What's that?" An oblivious friend asked. Zac imitated playing one. "A saw?!"

"No, it's a big violin."

"Oh, that's not cool."

"And I like to dance!" Ashley cut in. "I like to a lot."

"That's not that bad." Sharpay added bluntly. The little kids erupted into talking, and Sharpay strutted around the playground.

"EVERYBODY QUIET!" She said in a harsh whisper, to make sure the teacher didn't hear her. "This isn't right. I've got to think of something…"

Just then Gabriella ran out the door, running into Sharpay. Her pink lemonade spilled all over Sharpay's top, and Sharpay screamed.

"What is going on?" Ms. Shannon ran over, seeing it spilled all over Sharpay.

"Oh, hun, let's get you inside." She ushered Sharpay inside, while she stopped her.

"Gabriella did that on purpose! She did it because she doesn't want me in the play!" Sharpay cried innocently.

"Is this true, Gabriella?" Ms. Shannon warned, and Troy stepped to Gabriella's defense, since he had been right behind her. Chad stopped him.

"You don't want to get into that mess!" He shook his head, as Gabriella just whimpered like a punished puppy.

"Gabriella, please come with me." Ms. Shannon shook her head, taking one of Gabriella's hands with her free hand.

**Later**

Sharpay had come back to the playground, but Gabriella hadn't yet. It had been at least fifteen minutes, and Troy was really worried. The playground had become silent, except for Chad complaining about Zeke baking.

"This whole acting thing is turning the whole preschool upside down!" Chad whined, pulling Zeke up. "Zeke is baking!"

"Yeah, I can do Cookies-"

"Be queit, Zeke!" Chad continued.

"Dude, chill." Troy said, and all the faces turned to the teacher when she appeared at the entrance to the play ground. She thanked the person that had been watching the group, and got everyone's attention.

"Everyone, we're going inside early." Ms. Shannon told the class as she came back outside.

"Aww!" Chorused the group of kids.

"No if ands or buts about it." She said, rushing the class inside. Troy stopped in his tracks when he got back into the room.

In the back, Gabriella was sitting at a small desk in the corner, with her head in her hands. The time-out corner. It was boxed in like a cubby, but Troy was at the back of the class, and could see through it.

_Oh no! _Troy thought as Sharpay snickered seeing Gabriella like that.

"Stop it Sharpay!" He sniffed, rising up for Gabriella.

"Why?" She said icily.

"Because." Troy finished. Sharpay snickered again and strutted off. Troy looked around, seeing Ms. Shannon was outside, talking to someone. He snuck over to Gabriella.

"I'm sorry she got you in trouble." Troy said sympathetically.

"Thanks." Gabriella sniffed. Troy handed her a tissue. Their teacher had come to watch them, but she didn't make Troy go away. She had suspected Sharpay to lie about that, and she let Gabriella have a bit of a break, since she also didn't even plan on telling her mother. Just let the whole thing blow over.

"You know how when you're in Kindergarten, you seem all grown up?" Troy suddenly asked.

"Yes." Gabriella replied.

"Well, you know how everybody seems to get along in kindergarten?"

"Uh-huh." Gabriella nodded.

"Well, do you think we can be like that? Nice to each other? Like friends? Like kindergarten?" He asked.

"Sure." She smiled back. "Like kindergarten."

**Very short, but very hard to write! Sorry for the long delay, and I probably will update sooner than before, since I now have a new starting point. I fit in 'Stick to the Status Quo', a no singing version of the try-outs, and 'Like Kindergarten' all in this chapter. Again, hope you really liked it!**


	6. Sharpay's Plan

**I'm on a roll! Updating AFTW and now this! Yay!**

**I promise this chapter will make up for the total lameness of the last chapter. If you have ANY ideas/suggestions for the Christmas play, or any childish songs you know, don't hesitate to send me a PM, or just drop it by in a review!**

**This chapter is when I'm adding some new stuff in here! A bonus little buddy session and introduction to the basketball game, callbacks, and the replacement for the Scholastic Decathlon.**

Finally, Gabriella was let out of her short time-out. Taylor had immediately scoffed over there, while an awkward silence filled the space between the two. Kelsi came up behind them, with her soft voice breaking the pause.

"Did you tell her?" She asked Taylor.

"Tell me what?" Gabriella questioned.

"Oh!" Taylor suddenly remembered something. "You know how all of us can read?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, Kelsi and I are started a book club. We're doing a read-off with some of the kids from the _KINDERGARTEN_ class!" Taylor squealed.

"Yay!" Gabriella smiled along with her.

"Yeah. It's this Friday during outside time!" Kelsi added. "Are you coming?"

"Uh-huh!" Gabriella jumped up, forgetting all of her past drama. She was back with her friends and everything was going good again.

**Later**

Troy was sitting at the little basketball court on the playground. Since Gabriella's little time-out, she'd only been straying around Taylor and… what was her name? Oh! Kelsi.

"Troy!" Chad came running up to him, as the rest of the class was out. Troy had rushed outside, so he could have one or two minutes of quiet.

"Chad!" Troy mocked.

"We're going to play the kindergartners in basketball this Friday!" Chad jumped around.

"Really? _Kindergartners?_" Troy's mouth fell open.

"Yeah! They're coming over to do some plaything from the elementary! So they want to play us! Four on four!" Chad couldn't sit still.

"Did you tell him?" Zeke and Jason came running up behind them.

"Yeah!" Troy finished. He was forgetting about the Gabriella issue, while the guys gave him high-fives with smiles plastered all over their faces.

**To Ryan and Sharpay**

"Is there _anything _we can do to get Troy and Gabriella away from each other? Just for the callbacks?" She groaned. It was only Tuesday, but this was her Thursday mood. The 'I'm tired of the week, get it over with!' attitude.

"I dunno." Ryan shrugged.

"Well… They seem really happy over there. Troy was in a bad mood earlier. Chad must have made it bet-" Sharpay cut herself off, with another mischievous grin spread across her little face. She whispered her plan to Ryan, who nodded with a blank stare on his face.

"Well?" Sharpay finished.

"I'm proud to call you my sister!" Ryan smirked, but not knowing any of what Sharpay was talking about. He guessed he was just along for the ride again.

The twins waited until Troy took his usual trip to the bathroom in the middle of free outside time, and they approached Chad and the other basketball guys.

"So, I hear you are good friends with Troy Bolton." Sharpay said in the most business-like way.

"Sharpay, I've known you since you were this many months old," Chad held up a one on his fingers. "You don't have to act like we don't know each other." Sharpay rolled her eyes.

"I just need to talk to you, okay?" She asked.

"What's he here for?" Chad asked, referring to Ryan.

"He's in the plan." Sharpay stated dryly.

"What plan?" Chad asked, obviously being the talker for the other two boys in the background.

"You know that Gabriella girl? The one Troy seems to be spacing-out about?"

"You mean that new girl?" Chad asked with a dumb look on his face.

"Duh." Sharpay rolled her eyes again.

"I don't like her, either." Chad finished.

"Then you'll help?" Ryan spoke up.

"Of course." Chad said, imitating Sharpay's evil grin. The twins began exposing their plan to the others.

**Music Class  
**

The four-year-olds class was cringing at the ever-dramatic Ms. Darby, who was in a particularly bad mood today. Sharpay had already informed her of the juice scene, so of course, Ms. Darby had taken Sharpay's side.

"Class, today we will be discussing the callbacks and some _behavior _issues." She said, using her hands to dramatically flow into a circle motion. "To start off, callbacks are on Thursday during outside time." She paused, seeing all the kids' blank stares.

"Are you paying attention?" She snapped at Jason.

"Y… Yes Ms. Darby." He whimpered, and shivered once her watchful eye was off him.

"Anyway, I was informed today that we are having some behavior issues in this class. Now, I am all for diversity, but if you do _anything _to ruin this play, I will make sure to have a talk with your parents." The kids gasped, knowing a talk to their parents was one of the most serious punishments you could get.

For the rest of the hour, the music teacher droned on and on, until Ms. Shannon had come to pick the kids up. Instead of going in the usual straight line, Ms. Shannon made the kids pair up with their playtime buddies.

She was pleasantly surprised when the usual groans weren't there. There were a couple, but not nearly as much as usual.

The line was a buzz with whispers as they walked down the hall, and their teacher got an idea.

"Class!" She clapped, getting the class to form into a circle one they entered the room. "I have an announcement."

"An announ what?" Ryan spoke.

"Something to say." Ms. Shannon continued. "The best playtime group at the end of this week will be awarded extra cookies at lunch." She finished.

A wave of whispers shot through the room and the kids separated into their pairs.

**Troy and Gabriella**

"We've got this thing for sure!" Gabriella squealed excitedly from their corner of the room.

"I know! We're the only ones that really got along from the start!" Troy smiled. There was a short pause before Gabriella giggled.

"Why're you giggling?" Troy asked, confused.

"Because this is the first time we haven't had anything to say to each other."

"Oh, right." Troy commented with a slight chuckle. Gabriella pulled a new picture book off the shelf, and passed it the Troy. They immediately began their afternoon reading session.

**Chad and Taylor**

"Tay, can I ask you something?" Chad asked.

"Tay?" She responded, surprised.

"Yeah… Tay, it's your nickname, right?"

"Yes… But I didn't think you'd call me that." She blushed.

"Oh. Well, anyway. I've got a question."

"What?"

"Have you seen Troy and Gabriella talking to each other?" He asked with a little lisp on his 'Th's'. Taylor assumed he hadn't learned how to properly say them yet.

"Yes." She nodded.

"Are you okay with it?" Chad stared at her as she thought.

"No." She confessed. Chad began to whisper in her ear as Chad began to tell her his plan.

**Zeke and** **Sharpay (plus Ryan)**

"Hmm, they're still getting along…" Sharpay barely whispered. Ryan was sitting in their group today, since Ashley was not there.

"Excuse me?" Zeke asked politely.

"They're getting along." Sharpay said blankly.

"Who?"

"Troy and Gabriella." Zeke looked over at the pair who seemed to be having an usually good time.

"Zeke, if I tell you a secret, do you promise not to tell anyone?" Sharpay asked. Zeke's eyes widened and happily nodded.

"Pinky swear." He said, and the two shook pinkies. As Sharpay filled Zeke in on her little plan, as he intently listened. Ryan cut in on occasion, but not much. Maybe he was feeling a bit guilty about the plan…

**Jason and Kelsi**

"So…" Jason broke the silence between the two as they were coloring.

"Do you think we could win the playtime group prize?" Kelsi asked optimistically.

"Maybe. I think Troy and Gabriella have gotten along better, though."

"Yeah, I guess so." Kelsi put down her crayon to look across the room. Every pair was whispering something to each other, besides Troy and Gabriella. It seemed like Sharpay was the cause of all of this commotion.

"Sharpay has something up her sleeve…" Kelsi breathed.

"I think so too." Jason said, with another sigh.

"What do we do?" He asked.

"See what it is, to start." Kelsi shook her head and got back to her picture of a heart.

**Love it? Dislike it? Suggestions would really be nice… PM me or just drop it as a review if you have a couple…**

**And yes, I know it's really short. But I didn't have much more to put in this without revealing Sharpay's plan in this chapter. Next update WILL be sooner! I've got half the next chapter written already!**


	7. Fairy Tales

**Wow! All of you are completely awesome! People had so many ideas Next chapter is when I'll begin with the 'singing'… If that's what you guys would like to call it XD**

**Oh, and I know in the movie that Jason is part of the basketball scheme, but in this story he isn't. Kelsi also wasn't a friend of Taylor's, but that happened… -chuckle-**

"Taylorrrr!" Chad flailed his arms, trying to attention of the girl drawing with a blue highlighter. It was later in the afternoon, where the kids were now just waiting to get picked up.

"Chad! You interupped my coloring!" Taylor shook her head and put the lid back on the marker.

"It's interrupted…" Chad shrugged, while Taylor eyed him.

"How'd you know?"

"My daddy tells me to quit doing it to him all the time." Chad smiled proudly.

"Are we going to keep talking, or is this plan going to ever work?" Sharpay cut in, strutting up to the talking preschoolers.

"We're not doing this until tomorrow." Taylor corrected.

"Yes, but now that Troy and Gabriella are gone, we can rehearse." Sharpay said icily, running her hand through her shoulder-length hair.

"Yeah!" Ryan said, jumping into the circle. Sharpay snorted at Ryan's strange enthusiasm.

"So-" Sharpay began, but Taylor started talking.

"I don't feel right doing this…" Taylor sighed, unsure of her decision.

"Excuse me? There is NO time for backing out. You're either in or you're out. Do you really want Gabriella hanging out with Troy?" Sharpay pressured, while Zeke came into the conversation silently.

"No." Taylor confessed, backing off.

"As I was saying. Chad, you'll bring Troy into the playroom during free time. Zeke, you'll be waiting. Taylor, you'll listen outside the door, but act like you're reading…"

Sharpay continued in a shrill whisper until her mother came to pick her and Ryan up. The three that were left continued to plot and plan, as if Sharpay had never left.

The plan was now officially underway.

**The Next Day**

Gabriella's small footsteps echoed through the halls as her mom came with her to drop her off. Today didn't feel right; it had a sense of dread.

Troy greeted her with a friendly smile as they entered the room. Ms. Shannon took Gabriella's hand from her mothers' as she was signing Gabriella in.

"We're in group time right now, so just go find your partner." Ms. Shannon smiled happily. Gabriella, with no hesitation, went over to the bookshelf where Troy was anxiously waiting. Ryan and Sharpay hadn't shown up yet, neither had Taylor.

Chad and Zeke were talking quietly, and Gabriella uneasily noticed they kept taking quick glances at her or Troy as they were reading a new book.

Was there something wrong?

Gabriella grew silent as her and Troy finished the first book, looking up to see that Taylor had arrived, while Sharpay and Ryan were in the process of getting signed in.

Ashley, once again, wasn't there, so Ryan occupied his usual spot next to Sharpay.

"Gabriella?" Troy interrupted Gabriella's observations.

"Hmm?" She asked, tilting her head as her hair went with it. Today she had worn her hair down, her curls cascading down to her mid-back. It was the first time she had worn it down outside of Sunday school.

"What's wrong?" Troy asked, concerned.

"Oh, nothing. I wasn't feeling too well today." She admitted, half-lying. She was feeling a bit uneasy today, but not for the reason she was making Troy think.

"Are you gonna throw up?" Troy scooted away carefully, and Gabriella giggled.

"Not really. I don't feel that bad!" She started laughing more now, with Troy joining her.

In another corner of the room, Sharpay was sneering at the sight in disgust. She was about to get up when Ryan stopped her.

"It'll all be over in a couple of hours." He whispered. Zeke stood his ground from the two, who, like Taylor, was still unsure of his decision of participation. Sure he wanted to be Sharpay's friend, but Troy and Gabriella looked perfectly happy. Why ruin it?

**Lunchtime**

After Troy and Gabriella finished lunch, they went to meet with Ms. Darby in the music room. Kelsi was with the pair as they entered the 'scary place' as Troy always referred to it as.

Ms. Darby nearly disregarded the threesome, but she reluctantly got up and handed them a CD with a book full of easy lyrics. She put the CD in the music player, telling Kelsi just to press the button when the needed the music.

"The music is 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer'." Kelsi informed them.

"I've heard that song!" Gabriella exclaimed happily.

"Yeah!" Troy agreed.

"Here are your picture cards. We just need to practice holding them up." Kelsi handed the pair pictures of a light bulb, a red glowing dot, a board game, and some others that went along with the song.

"Are we gonna use these in the callback?" Troy quizzically asked.

"You could say that." Kelsi nodded.

The threesome practiced the first few parts of the song, like they had practiced this before. Kelsi was extremely pleased, closing her playbook as they three scrambled for free time when Ms. Shannon came to the door.

"Ready?" Their teacher asked. The three nodded, following her to nap time.

Some of the children had already dozed off, and the three weren't far behind them. Gabriella took her blanket and pillow to her assigned spot to nap.

Troy was in the spot diagonal to her, while Kelsi was across the room. The two smiled at each other, under the glare of Sharpay who was next to Gabriella, before they drifted into sleep.

Sharpay, however, was faking her sleep. There was a mixture of nervousness and excitement rushing through her body.

Although she was little, she was plenty mean. Her sister was the most popular girl at her school, and Sharpay wanted to be just like her.

This was the only way to begin.

**Free Time**

Sharpay was looking four preschoolers, two at a time, as the exited the playroom for the plan. Sharpay grinned to herself, while Ryan was off talking to Kelsi. He took a glance at her and she glared at him. Quickly, he said good-bye to Kelsi and took his usual spot on the other side of Sharpay.

On a normal day, Ms. Shannon would have gone with them, but as Chad and Troy were about to leave, Sharpay started wailing.

"What is wrong Sharpay?" Their teacher came running over to them.

"I...Lost...My...BLANKET!" Sharpay rubbed her teary eyes, as Taylor took that as her cue.

"Ms. Shannon, can we go get a drink of water?" Taylor asked sweetly.

"Yes, but you'll have to go without me." She replied while triyn to soothe the other four-year-old. Suddenly, Sharpay just stopped crying as Taylor and Gabriella left the room. Ms. Shannon shrugged and went on her way.

Sharpay, on the other hand, smiled. Her plan was working perfectly.

As Taylor and Gabriella were leaving, Chad was pulling Troy, very hardly, by the arm to the empty classroom.

"Chad, what are we doing?" Troy asked. "Ms. Shannon told us to quickly get our Legos, but she didn't mean to hurry _that_ fast!" They got to the room, with Troy out of breath.

"You need to see this." Chad urged. Troy came into the room to see Zeke standing there, with a basketball.

"We are here to show you your true destiny, or whatever." Zeke said, not really knowing what 'destiny' meant.

"What?" Troy raised an eyebrow.

"Troy, have you ever seen-" Chad began his entire speech about the difference between famous basketball stars and famous musicians, with Troy rolling his eyes at every comment. He had no idea why his friends were giving him this speech.

**Meanwhile**

Gabriella and Taylor sat down outside the door, Gabriella with a completely confused look on her face.

"Taylor, why are we coming out here? We just told Ms. Shannon we were going to get a drink of water!" Gabriella reasoned, taking a seat next to the door.

"Well, I wanted to read in the quiet!" Taylor defended, a little too fake, opening her book.

"In the hallway?" Gabriella tilted her head. "Why don't we just go in the classroom?" Gabriella tried to get up, Taylor stopping her

"No, no! Someone will catch us in there!" Taylor said, shaking her head. It made no sense, but Gabriella accepted the excuse and they began to read.

"Once upon a time, there was a beautiful girl, named Cinderella..." Gabriella began

Taylor continued to take glances inside the room, while Gabriella was reading. She could only hear bits and pieces of the conversation over Gabriella's reading voice, but was hearing enough to know that Troy was just about to crack under pressure.

"She's nothing but trouble!" Chad argued.

"You're going to do some musical insead of the game!" Zeke pressured.

"What is wrong with you two?" Troy raised his squeaky voice.

"There's something you need to see." Taylor said, knowing her cue and pulling Gabriella into the room and under a desk. Troy's voice rose up.

"Gabriella isn't important!" He threw his hands up, and Gabriella whimpered. "The play means nothing to me! You guys know me! I'll forget it! I'm all for the team."

"We just thought-" Troy cut Zeke off.

"Well you thought wrong!" Troy stomped out of the room, not noticing the two girls under the chair, one on the verge of tears.

"I'm sorry Gabriella." Taylor shook her head.

"Me too." She sniffed, as Chad and Zeke pretended to not notice the two girls as they walked out of the room.

"Anything you wanna talk about?" Taylor comforted her friend.

"Nuh-uh." Gabriella shook her head.

The two walked out, with Gabriella muttering under her breath

_I thought you were my fairy tale_

She sniffed again, and began bawling when they got to the playroom. She just wanted to go home.

**I hated having that little Ryan-evil escapade in there, but I didn't know how else to include him. Thanks for all the suggestions! I'll credit everyone in the next chapter!**


	8. HELP!

**Guess who wasn't lazy and got around to writing this? ME!**

**I forgot to credit freakygeniusgurl** **(anonymous reviewer)** **for the basis of the last chapter! This chapter still won't have real 'singing', but this is more of a filler until we get to the plans. This story probably only has a couple more chapters before it wraps up! Sadly, no sequel until the second movie (long way off, I know) but I made this fic so I could particularly follow the movie… Not make up a completely different thing.**

**Anyhow, hope you like this chapter!**

Gabriella was crying all the way to the nurses' office, still complaining of her stomachache. Troy, for some reason, had tried to comfort her, but she had pushed him away. She was in no mood to discuss anything with him at the moment.

"Dear. You don't have a temperature. Are you sure it's not just lunch settling?" The nurse asked, gently taking the oral thermometer out of Gabriella's mouth. She whimpered and shook her head.

The nurse sighed, weighing her options. Send her home now, and risk a very angry parent. But if she really wasn't feeling well, she'd still have a very angry parent. Better be safe than sorry, though. Gabriella could have something, and spread it.

Like that chicken pox epidemic a couple of years ago. She shuddered.

"Okay, Gabriella, we'll send you home." She sighed, going to call. Gabriella continued with her act, nodding her head with her eyes sparkling with hope.

The class went by, with Taylor worriedly glancing into the office. Had it really hurt Gabriella that much? Zeke had much of the same thoughts running through his mind.

Troy, too, was glancing inside the office. Why had Gabriella just come from a drink of water yelling and screaming and crying? He had tried to console her, but she had completely ignored him.

What had he done?

Sharpay, however, had seen Gabriella crying like crazy. Her plan had worked perfectly. She put on a satisfied smile and continued on in the line of preschoolers.

Chad and Ryan didn't even notice the girl in the nurses' office. They were too excited about Arts and Crafts time to care.

Shortly afterward, Gabriella's mother came hurrying for her daughter, believing her sick act as well. As much as Gabriella didn't like having to lay down for the rest of the day, she did. It gave her time to think, and time to decide on a couple of things.

Jason and Kelsi were talking to Taylor later that day, as she was explaining her plan to them.

"What?" Kelsi exclaimed in shock.

"Why did you guys do that?" Jason asked, wide-eyed.

"Because Troy and Gabriella were getting too close. They need to focus!" Taylor defended.

"But they were always nice to each other. They shared. Isn't that what this whole buddy thing was about?" Kelsi added.

"Well…" Taylor sighed. "It was Sharpay's idea. I-I really don't like it now, though. Gabriella was really sad."

"Is there anyway we can fix it?" Jason asked.

"I dunno. Let's see how Gabriella is tomorrow, then we'll talk." She sighed again, and got on with her craft for the day.

The next day 

Troy happily looked at his work, pleased at how it had turned out. Now if Gabriella would come, he could give it to her. Taylor had just arrived in the room, and was talking to Chad. The two had really hit it off for these playtime groups. What he didn't know was that everyone was having mixed feelings about the plan against him and Gabriella that he didn't even know about.

They were working to fix this horrible mess. But first, they had to find out how to tell their dear friends the truth without hurting them more.

The big game was in two days, and Chad was pressuring him to no end. With try-outs the next day, Troy was really excited. He needed to talk to Gabriella, though.

Finally, Ms. Montez entered the room, with her daughter nervously trailing behind her. Troy hadn't seen her like this in forever, but he assumed she hadn't yet gotten over her little sickness.

Once her mother left, Troy scurried over to Gabriella, who had caught Taylor's attention.

"Hey Gabriella!" He waved at her as she continued talking to Taylor, like he wasn't there. "I needed to talk to you about the play-"

"I know, Troy," She turned around, her brown eyes filled with sadness. "I don't want to do the play, either. We can just go our separate ways." Tears started filling her eyes, and Troy tried to understand what was going on.

"Gabriella! I want to do it! I got you a card." He held up the card, placing it in her hands. She shoved it back, and went over to the corner. Taylor gave him a sympathetic look, and followed Gabriella.

Troy, stunned, didn't know what to think. What was going on? Ms. Shannon seemed to have perfect timing, interrupting Troy's confused thoughts.

"Okay guys, play buddies, now!" She quickly clapped her hands as the children paired up. "Judging for the best behaved starts today, and I will be going around, looking for good pairs!"

Troy and Gabriella 

Gabriella spoke nothing to Troy, who continued to talk. He didn't understand what was going on.

"Look, let's just read so the teacher will think we're friends." Gabriella said quietly. Troy began to argue, but Gabriella had already gotten a book and began reading it.

Chad and Taylor 

"I feel bad." Taylor sighed.

"Me three." Chad shook his head.

"It's 'Me too', Chad. Not 'Me three'." Taylor corrected.

"Huh?"

"Nevermind. What are we going to do about it?" Taylor continued.

"I dunno." Chad shrugged.

"I don't want to talk to Sharpay…"

"Could we just tell them?"

"But then they'd be mad." Taylor shook her head.

"It's the only way." Chad shrugged. Now if only they could find a way to help their friends.

Sharpay and Zeke 

"You're in a good mood today." Zeke complimented Sharpay's constant humming of 'Santa Clause is Coming to Town'.

"Yes I am." She stole a glance at Troy and Gabriella, who obviously didn't show the chemistry they had had before.

"Do you want to play with the town play set?" Zeke asked.

"Okay. As long as my Barbie can be queen." Sharpay smiled sweetly, grabbing a dancing princess doll out of her bag and going over to Zeke.

This day couldn't get any better for her.

Kelsi and Jason 

"I wonder if we could just talk to them." Kelsi said, putting down her purple marker.

"But then everyone else would be mad." Jason debated. They could tell Troy and Gabriella were not having too good of a time, with Gabriella reading, tears brimming her eyes.

"It's not right. They deserve to win." Kelsi shook her head, like many of the preschoolers had been doing that day.

"Oh! Kelsi, I got something for you!" Jason smiled, pulling something out of his bag.

"What is it?" She asked excitedly, temporarily forgetting the situation.

"It's cookies!" Jason pulled out a plastic bag with one cookie in it. It was shaped as Santa, with bright red icing as the filling and white icing that added detail. "There was two… But I got hungry on the way to school…" Jason blushed.

"That's sweet!" Kelsi hugged her friend and Jason gave her the cookie. Carefully, she broke it in half and handed the other half to Jason, who was blushing heavily.

Ryan and Ashley 

"You're back!" He said, going up to his friend.

"I am!" She giggled, sitting down.

"Where were you?"

"I was sick. I had a cold." She shivered, adding a dramatic effect to the scene.

"Oh. You feel better, right?" He asked.

"Yeah," She glanced around the room. "Why is everything so different?"

"Because of Sharpay." Ryan shrugged. He was a bit guilty about what had happened, but he certainly wasn't going to tell Sharpay about it.

"What happened? Why are Troy and Gabriella mad? Why are Chad and Taylor so… distant? Why is Sharpay in a good mood? _Why does Zeke even like her?_" Ashley said, covering her hand over her mouth after that last question. "Sorry." She whispered.

"It's okay. I know not many people like her. Zeke's weird." He said with a giggle.

"Anyway, what happened while I was sick? Was it Sharpay?" Ashley quickly got off her mind what she had been wondering since she had walked into the room that morning.

Ryan began to explain everything: The plan, the auditions, the basketball game, the reading competition, the breakup, everything.

Ashley stood quiet the whole time, not believing the brilliant plan Sharpay had come up with. Yes, it was terribly mean, but it was really thought-out.

Ryan finished, hoping Ashley wouldn't get mad.

"I'm… I'm sorry." He finally said.

"It's not your fault." She nodded.

"But I could have stop-"

"There was nothing you could do," She sighed. "But there is something we can do."

Later (everyone) 

Ms. Darby came bursting into the room, hurrying on her way out.

"Children, there's a family emergency of mine, my sister is having marriage trouble. I'm afraid I'll have to move the try-out date to Friday, since I'll be leaving right after school tomorrow." On any other occasion, the class would have cheered and been all-smiles.

But this time, they grimly looked up. Most of their hearts sank, because they all knew what day that was.

The day of the basketball game.

The day of the read-off

And now, the day of the try-outs

Even if this mess was fixed, how were they going to get Troy and Gabriella there on time?

Short, but the next chapter is the next day and the makeup. I couldn't find anything else to put in this chapter, and I know it was rushed a bit. There's not much detail to put into two preschoolers fighting… lol

**Anyway, reviews are always appreciated. I'd like to hit 100 this time around! I just hit 100 on another story, so I'm excited about that as well. If you didn't notice, Sharpay and Ryan will be performing 'Santa Claus is Coming to Town' for the callbacks. Teehee. I'm excited about writing that!**

**I've also added a little Troyella Christmas one-shot, and the link is on my profile. Not much else to report other than be expecting more updates! The holidays are almost here, and I'll be off of school and writing like CRAZY the next few weeks in hopes of finishing this up. Sadly, the story of our preschool adventurers has to come to an end some time. -cry-**


	9. Making Up

**We hit 100! Thanks guys ) Really perked up my week when I came back from being grounded (long story) and my inbox just had straight down 'Review Alert: Little…' or for my other story. It seems like this won't get done before Christmas, but now I really don't care if it fits the season… XD**

**Right after 'Group Time'**

It was now free play time, and each of the groups had already split up into the small cliques of the preschool. However, there was one difference. Gabriella was sulking in the corner, after Taylor's unsuccessful attempts to cheer her up.

Troy was practicing his reading, trying to figure out what he did.

And the most surprising of it all was that Chad, Taylor, Zeke, Kelsi, and Jason were all gathered around the coloring table, talking in hushed whispers. Sharpay and Ryan were in the music room, practicing for their try-out music.

"We've got to sort this out!" Kelsi screeched.

"First, we need to get Troy and Gabriella to make up with each other." Jason suggested. Nods of agreement spread throughout the table.

"What if they hate us?" Taylor sighed.

"But this is more importat!" Chad reassured.

"Important." Taylor corrected.

"No, _importat!_" Chad rolled his eyes.

"Whatever…." Taylor rolled her eyes back.

"Anyway, we should tell them." Zeke concluded, trying to stop Chad and Taylor from arguing any more.

"But how?" Jason asked.

"Well, we'll just explain it all. Then, they can help us with a plan." Zeke shrugged.

"Okay. We start explaining at 0900 hours! Are we a go?" Chad asked.

"But 0900 hours is a long time!" Kelsi exclaimed.

"What does that mean?" Jason asked.

"Nevermind. We go to talk to them now. Okay, now are we a go?" Chad repeated.

"Yes, we're a go. But we're not spies." Taylor repeated her eye-roll.

"I can dream, can't I?" Chad shrugged.

**Taylor, Kelsi, and Gabriella**

Taylor and Kelsi approached their friend, who quickly turned her head when her friends came up to her.

"Gabriella, we need to tell you something." Taylor sighed.

"What?" She asked, a bit too harsh.

"You're gonna hate me for it…" Taylor continued.

"And we're here to make it better. They now know their mistake…" Kelsi added.

"Kelsi wasn't involved in this, either," Taylor said as Gabriella lifted her head up. "We set it up so that Troy would say those things. We knew Chad could get him to crack, and he did. We're- no- _I'm _really sorry."

"Nobody made him say anything." Gabriella whimpered.

"But we helped. You know when people are pressuring you to do something; it's hard not to crack. And Troy has been hearing this complaining from Chad all week. It's only natural."

"But he never apologized." Gabriella sniffled.

"Because he never knew." Taylor explained, putting her hand on Gabriella's shoulder.

"That's what we're here to do. Help get that musical back!" Kelsi added, happily.

"What about the callbacks and the read off?"

"We haven't gotten to that just yet." The girls giggled, and Gabriella gave a small smile that explained everything. She was willing to give the tryouts another chance.

**Chad, Zeke, Jason, and Troy**

"Troy?" Chad asked, gently pulling the book away.

"Guys, Gabriella is mad at me, and I don't know why!" Troy immediately said.

"That's what we're here to explain." Jason stated.

"And before we get started, I'd like to give you my cookie for lunch I helped my mommy make. You'll need them." Zeke handed a confused Troy a cookie in the shape of a stocking.

"First off," Chad began. "Jason had nothing to do with this." Jason nodded.

"Second, Gabriella is mad because of what you said the other day. About forgetting the play."

"She heard that?" Troy screeched.

"Yes." Chad said in a small tone, hoping his friend wouldn't be too mad. Before he could finish, Troy got upright and ran over to Gabriella.

The last thing Gabriella had expected while walking to the coloring table was Troy coming up behind her to give her a monstrous hug.

"Troy?" She asked, not able to see the four-year-old behind her.

"Yes?" He asked with a giggle.

"Why are you hugging me?" She giggled along with him.

"'Cause I'm sorry." Troy said proudly.

"Really?" Gabriella asked.

"Yeah. Do you forgive me?"

"Mmhmm." She nodded.

The others soon were around the two, who had finally broken the hug. It was now time to plan for how they would get the two into two places at once. It seemed that everybody was willing to help, except for Sharpay and Ryan, in which Sharpay was glaring menacingly at the group. They had just gotten back from rehearsing with Ms. Darby on their audition song.

"Who do they think they are?" Sharpay asked angrily.

"They're disrupting the balance." Ryan shook his head. Inside, though, he was a bit excited about the two getting back together. This was a chance for him to start making other friends. Of course, that would have to happen after Sharpay cooled down a bit more.

"Is there anymore we can do?" Ryan asked, snapping out of his thoughts.

"It's not like they can be in two places at once." Sharpay shrugged. She didn't seem too worried about the callbacks, but still seemed angry about the whole Troy-Gabriella situation.

"Yeah…" Ryan agreed. Somehow, in the back of his head, he had a sense that it all would somehow work out.

While Sharpay and Ryan were talking, the four-year-olds were all arguing over what they would do. Somehow, they began to form a rough outline of what they would do.

Someone would go into the read off, complaining of an upset stomach. That would make the teacher have to bring the class to the nurses' office, where they would pass the music room before going there. Which gave Gabriella enough time to slip into the callbacks.

The basketball game would run the same, but somebody would complain about getting hurt. Again, the teams would be led to the nurses' office, in which they would, like the read off preschoolers, pass by the music room. This gave Troy time to slip away. If everything went as planned, they would all be back in time.

Chad was going over the plan with everybody, making sure they got it.

"Okay. Now, who's going to be the one with the upset stomach?" Chad asked.

"I will!" Ashley volunteered. "My cousin is in kindergarten, so maybe she can pretend to get one too!"

"Good. Now, anybody willing to fake getting hurt?"

"I can do that." Zeke nodded.

"Could we talk to the kindergartners about this, too?" Gabriella questioned.

"Nah!" Rang throughout the group, and she shrugged.

"This might actually work…" Troy continued.

**Later at Lunch**

"Class, music class today has been cancelled-"

Before the teacher could get anything out, cheers erupted throughout the class. After about a minute, they grew silent again, waiting for Ms. Shannon to speak the reason why.

"As she told you all before, Ms. Darby's sister is having marriage trouble, as she went home early to help out. Not to worry, your music teacher will be back in time for the callbacks." Ms. Shannon chuckled, noticing that the spirits of the room were lifted once again.

"During music class time, we'll do another buddy outside time," More cheers came through the room. "And remember, tomorrow is when I make my final decision on the best playtime buddies."

After lunch the preschoolers rushed outside, eager to be with their playtime buddies. This time, they were much more eager to get to talking about the callbacks than anything else.

**Troy and Gabriella**

"I wanted to give this to you earlier, but you wouldn't take it…" Troy pulled the card out from behind his back, and Gabriella smiled and took it. They were seated in their 'secret spot' under the tree.

"It's so sweet, Troy." Gabriella gasped as she opened it. The outside just had 'Gabriella' written in silver letter stickers on the front. It was folded sideways, like a usual card.

There was a hand painted heart across the middle that had been closed when the paint was still wet, so a lighter version of the heart was mirrored across the edge of the card. It was on light blue paper, with the hand written stuff in dark purple paint.

"I wanted to make sure you felt better." Troy said.

The writing said:

I** _h_**o_p_**e y**_o**u **_f**e_e_**_l _**b_e_**t_t__**e**_r _S**OO**_N!

Many different types of stickers were used to form the message, but it seemed like a sweet gesture. The only thing hand-written was the signature, that revealed, in very difficult to read handwriting, a name.

_Troy Bolton_

"That's the sweetest thing anyone has ever done. Thanks." Gabriella smiled.

"I was worried, that's all." Troy said, blushing.

**Chad and Taylor**

"They're getting along!" Chad whispered from the perch behind the tree. Spying wasn't Taylor's favorite thing to do, but it sure was Chad's.

"C'mon! We need to stop! Spying is bad!" Taylor urged.

"But-"

"NOW!" Taylor pulled Chad from his hiding spot, heaving a sigh of relief when she notice that Troy and Gabriella weren't paying a bit of attention to anything outside of their little bubble.

"Taylor!" Chad whined. "We could have gotten a look at the card!"

"Not unless you want two people to be extremely angry with you, you don't!" Taylor defended.

"Wanna build a sand castle?" Chad asked, changing the subject. Taylor nodded and picked up the shovel.

**Sharpay and Zeke**

"Why were you talking to all the other kids who think that Troy and Gabriella should be friends?" Sharpay questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"Be… because I…wanted to know what they were doing…" Zeke nearly whispered.

"It sure looked like more." She glared at him.

"Sharpay-"

"Go away!" She spun on her heel, leaving to the other end of the play set. This obviously wasn't the best day for her. Zeke just decided to back off. Sharpay wasn't the best person to mess with.

**Kelsi and Jason**

"Hey Kelsi!" Jason said happily as they came to the seesaw.

"Hey Jason!" Kelsi replied, playfully mocking him.

"Looks like Troy and Gabriella are getting along." Jason stated.

"Yeah. But Sharpay and Zeke aren't." Kelsi giggled.

"Oh well, she'll get over it. Zeke needs to try to get new friends." Jason shrugged and pulled himself up on the seesaw. The two were now having fun bouncing up and down on the seesaw.

**Ryan and Ashley**

"Are you gonna keep listening to Sharpay, or will you ever break free of her clutches?" Ashley asked.

"I… Don't know…" Ryan answered truthfully.

"Don't you ever want to?"

"Yeah, I want to, but it's not that easy…"

"Well, I can help you." Ashley smiled and Ryan sighed.

"Okay. I'll give it a go. But can we wait until after the callbacks?" Ryan laughed.

"Deal!" Ashley said, happy for her new friend.

**Again, another filler chapter before the callbacks. The next chapter will be the preparations for the callbacks, along with the beginning of the game and the read-off. Then the one after that is the callbacks, and then a little epilogue! But I'm thinking of adding a little bonus chapter after that… ;) It'll be called 'Picture Day', incase you're wondering. Follow our little adventurers through picture day.**

**So three or four chapters, and this story will close. As for a sequel, well, let's wait until the second movie comes out for that, and I'll think about it, if it's not to difficult to put into preschool form. And to answer a question from a reviewer, I'd like to say that in chapter five, the parents were there. They were just outside. **

**And I've written the first chapters for two of my new story ideas (Meet the Family and A Day of Shopping) Which ones would you like to see go up first? Drop the suggestions for them in a review or PM me! **

**Wow. Long AN today! Any more questions? PM me.**


	10. Triple Threat

**I could have never imagined this story would be so popular, and the success of it amazes me. Alerts are _finally _back up, so I'm posting! **

**Before I forget to write this, I'm going to be out of town as of tomorrow. All-area band auditions (one level before qualifying for the state band!) start Saturday, and my director is pulling us all up there Friday so we won't have a really early start the day of the auditions. I'm not near ready, but hey, I don't know how prepared the others are. Maybe there's a shot. **

**Most likely not, though. -giggle-**

**Anyway, I'll get on with the this chapter (this one is actually going to be a filler leading up to the callbacks).**

"Ready for today?" Troy asked Gabriella as she walked up to the coloring table. She looked more excited than Troy had ever seen her, especially since it was just the beginning of the day. It was also the last day of preschool before the children would get out for the holidays.

"Uh-huh," She nodded. "We'll need to hurry with the callbacks, though. My mommy is coming to watch me during the read-off!"

"My daddy got off work to come watch me, too!" Troy grinned. "Don't worry, we'll hurry!"

"That rhymed!" Gabriella giggled.

"Can I join?" Chad asked, coming up to the table. He had just been dropped off by his mother, who was scribbling her signature on the sign-in sheet.

"Sure! I'm coloring a picture for my little sister." Troy replied, showing the other two a picture of a star.

"That looks pretty! I'm coloring this princess in my new coloring book!" Gabriella held up her creation, to show a multi-colored princess sitting on a purple throne.

"Cool," Chad said, picking up an orange marker and drawing what looked like a circle. "I'm going to draw a picture for Taylor."

"A basketball?" Troy asked.

"How'd you guess?" Chad's eyes widened.

"Your picture is round… and orange…" Troy shrugged.

"At least it's not my Lego basketball."

"That's true." Troy laughed.

"Should I make it a good luck card?"

"But Chad, that's a basketball, not a book. Basketball is not Taylor's favorite thing..." Gabriella pointed out.

"Yeah, but… Nevermind." He shrugged and began coloring in the circle.

Over the course of the next few hours, anyone in the classroom couldn't have a conversation without hearing about the events for the day ahead. Sharpay had just now found out about the plan, and was as furious as a four-year-old with an attitude could get.

"I can't believe they are doing this! The callbacks are already on the same day!" Sharpay shrieked.

"But we still have a better song." Ryan comforted his siste.

"'Up On The Housetop' is nothing compared to 'Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer' if they have picture cards!" Sharpay sat down in her corner and stuck out her bottom lip.

"Sharpay…" Ryan tried to think of more comforting words, but he just couldn't. "We'll get through this." He sighed.

Sharpay groaned and pushed Ryan away.

"I don't need my brother feeling pity for me." She scoffed.

"I-I don't…"

"Just be quiet, Ryan." She rolled her eyes.

"Okay." Ryan shut his mouth, got up, and went to sit with a group of four friends having their snack at the table in the middle of the room.

The last thing Troy, Gabriella, Chad, and Taylor expected was to see Ryan come up to their group, but there he was, coming up to the table.

"Do you mind if I join?" He asked nervously. Besides the strange looks he got from the four, they nodded and he happily sat down. "I'm sorry if my sister has done anything to you guys."

"It's okay. You don't need to apologize for her." Gabriella said, seeing that he was a bit upset at the moment.

"Yeah. You're your own person!" Chad exclaimed, letting bits of cookie crumbs escape his mouth as he spoke.

"Wow, Chad. Where'd you get that from?" Troy asked, wiping a bit of stray snack cookie crumb from his cheek.

"Box of cereal." Chad shrugged, the gang giving him more strange looks.

"Chad's a bit hyper today." Taylor explained to Ryan, who didn't understand much about what was going on.

"Oh, because of the callbacks?" Ryan asked, taken by surprise that Chad might even be a bit interested in the callbacks.

"No, silly!" Chad laughed. "Because of the game!"

"What game? All I know about is the read-off thingy." Ryan hadn't heard of the big basketball game that was to be held. All he knew about was the read-off.

"What game?" The group asked back, shocked he hadn't heard of the basketball game.

"Basketball, of course!" Troy answered.

"Oh. Against the kindergartners?"

"Mmhmm." Troy nodded.

"Well, good luck!" Ryan said, truly meaning it.

"What brings you here?" Taylor blurted out, curious.

"Sharpay's mad at me. But I'm really just tired of her." Ryan explained.

"But the callbacks are today! You two need to be getting along!" Gabriella said with a wide-eyed expression.

"She'll come around and apologize here in a little bit. But I really do want to be all of your friends. I feel bad for everything my sister's done."

"You shouldn't feel bad for something you didn't do." Taylor comforted.

"Yeah, but I do." He shrugged. There was an awkward silence before Chad finally broke it.

"Well, welcome to Team Wildcat!" He said happily.

"Why Wildcat?" Ryan asked.

"Because the girls wanted Leopard, but we didn't like that. We wanted Tiger. Since we couldn't agree, we asked the teacher, and she suggested 'Wildcats'." Troy explained.

"Ooh!" Ryan nodded. He stole a glance at his sister, who was giving him an extremely evil look. The group noticed this, and gave him an encouraging smile.

"Go and make sure she's alright," Gabriella smiled. "We don't mind." Ryan simply nodded and got up, walking towards his sister.

"What was that about?" She asked, obviously still angry.

"I wanted to talk to someone besides you or Zeke. Is that a problem?" Ryan said plainly. Sharpay, who was at a loss for words, just shrugged and pulled Ryan into going to color with her.

From afar, the group watched. They expected a loud outburst from Sharpay, at the least. What they saw amazed them. Sharpay was being tolerant! She wasn't yelling at her brother!

Now, it could be confirmed. They _were_ in for an interesting afternoon.

Just one hour until the big events began, the class was a buzz of four-year-old voices and activities. Each group was going to do one thing or another to help the cause, whether it be drawing 'Good luck' cards, scrimmaging the basketball team, or helping the readers, or even watching Sharpay and Ryan's callback audition.

They certainly had a good audience. To top it all off, Ms. Shannon had announced that she would wait until after all the big events to announce the best playtime group. The events were going to end about an hour before school let out, which left the preschoolers a bit of time to enjoy their snack before the holidays.

"Are we ready to begin our special day?" Ms. Shannon asked the group.

"Yes!" Cheered the class.

"Then let's go! Get into three lines. One for the Callbacks, one of the Basketball Game, and one for the Read-off." She said happily. The students did as they were told, and separated into lines.

"Good luck." Gabriella whispered to Troy as he went off in line.

"You too." He took once last glance back, giving her a reassuring smile.

**The Read-off**

Gabriella shifted uncomftorably in her seat. She was as nervous as the first day she had come to East Preschool, and was getting more nervous by the second.

The kindergartners had arrived, them looking brave and grown-up, even though they were just a year older than the others were.

"Welcome, students and parents." The kindergarten teacher came up on stage, giving a smile to the small group that had gathered in the library. Three or four sets of parents (one of which was Gabriella's mother), along with some kindergartners and preschoolers, made up the crowd.

"To begin, we will write down a sentence on the board," The teacher pointed to a dry-erase board behind her. "The two students that were chosen to pair up will read it, and the first person to ring their bell and get the correct answer, gets the point. This will go until one-team reaches thirty points. Now, lets begin!"

There were only three people on the preschool team, and five on the kindergarten team, and Taylor was the first up. A boy from the kindergarten team came up as Taylor took her seat next to the dry-erase board.

The teacher wrote something down, and Taylor instantly put her hand down.

"The cat named Max." Taylor replied enthusiastically.

"Correct." The teacher seemed impressed.

Next up was Kelsi and a girl from the kindergarten class. The girl from the kindergarten class was quick on her bell, and took the point for them. Gabriella then went, bringing her team a victory.

This went on for quite awhile, with Kelsi only losing twice more, Taylor once more, and Gabriella no mistakes.

The score was now 27-27, and Taylor was up.

The Basketball Game 

Troy paced nervously on the side on the miniature basketball court. He was very nervous right now, but remembering Gabriella's comforting words made him feel so much better.

Like the read-off, the crowd was made up of a few sets of parents and students, one of the parents being Troy's father.

"Good luck, son!" He encouraged.

"Thanks, Dad." Troy replied with a smile that hid his nervousness.

"Are we ready to begin?" Ms. Shannon asked a very giddy audience.

"YES!" Screamed the children, with nods from the parents. The court didn't look much like a basketball court, being half the size of one, along with small plastic basketball nets on the ends of the lines drawn with chalk.

"Okay, lets begin! First team to thirty points, wins!" She said, throwing the basketball in the air, Troy and a bigger kindergartner jumping for the ball. The kindergartners were better than they expected, taking the ball immediately.

That didn't last long. Chad was able to get it back, and score the first basket for the newly formed 'Wildcats' team. It was now 2-0

A wit-testing battle began, with the preschoolers struggling to keep up with the bigger group of kindergartners.

However, the team prevailed, and before long, they were in a 26-26 tie. Just two more baskets.

**The Callbacks**

Ms. Darby sat at her place in the small audience, disappointed that not many decided to show up. Only the Evans' twins parents and some students.

"Let's began," She said, looking bored. "Sharpay and Ryan Evans."

Sharpay appeared on stage with a Santa hat and a foot long fake candy cane in her hand. Ryan came on along with her, in a matching Santa hat and red shirt.

She clicked the button on the CD player, and the music began.

"Up on the housetop, _click, click, click._" Sharpay began, tapping her candy cane to the _clicks. _

"Out comes good ol' Jolly St. Nick!" Ryan popped out from his crouching spot behind Sharpay, imitating his line.

Somewhere in the room, a watch went off, striking two o' clock. It didn't mean anything besides a disruption to the song to the people in the room, but what they didn't know is that a plan was going into play as the watch alarm rang.

**There's the next chapter! E-mail is down while I am writing this, so it'll go up once I know it's back up, since I don't like messing with stories when e-mail is down. You never know what would get messed up!**

**Anyway, I need to start getting votes on who you guys want to win the Best Playtime Buddy competition (Choose from Troy/Gabriella, Chad/Taylor, Sharpay/Zeke, Kelsi/Jason, and Ryan/Ashley). You know the drill ;) Put your choice in a review, or drop my a PM! **

**Since the auditions are tomorrow, I won't be able to start back up writing and updating Sunday. So until then, hope you guys have a good weekend. Can you all surprise me when I get back and have my inbox full of Reviews for this story? **


	11. Callbacks

**WOW! 18 reviews for the past chapter! YAY! Well, I did have an extremely crammed inbox XD I still haven't gotten all the alerts for the reviews, but I guess those were just lost in the glitch. Still, I'm counting the votes by hand as they appear. **

**I can't believe there's only one more chapter and an epilogue to post… -sniffle- **

**Basketball Game**

Troy looked over at the glowing numbers from a watch on one of the game onlooker's wrist. It read '1:59'. Troy snapped his head around after staring a bit too long, trying to 'get his head back in the game'.

The other team took possession of the ball while he was watching the clock and Troy tried to keep up with them as they ran towards the other side. He caught the gaze of Zeke, in which he nodded at, signaling that it was time for their plan to go into action.

Zeke ran out in front of one of the kindergartners to try and steal the ball from, who tried their best to avoid him, but ended up brushing past his shoulder. Although it didn't really happen, Zeke flailed his arms and went down, making it appear that he had gotten hurt.

Gasps from the crowd erupted, with Zeke's mother running up to him. Their teacher stopped the game, and went to check the four-year-old lying on the ground.

"I'm fine. Just a little scrape." Zeke concluded, trying to make his mother less worried, but give an excuse to make everyone have to go to the nurses' office.

"Well, let's get that checked out by the nurse." Ms. Shannon took Zeke's arm, with half the crowd coming along with him. Troy was, of course, among these people and small children.

"Troy! I'll come with you." His father offered, putting his hand on Troy's small shoulder.

"No, it's fine. I'm grown-up! I can do this myself. It's just seeing if Zeke is okay." He said matter-of-factly.

"I guess you are," His father chuckled, amused. "Well, I'll see you when you get back."

"Okay!" Troy waved, running off into the building after the small crowd.

**Read-Off**

Although it was Gabriella's turn to get up, she saw the numbers on the digital clock, and smiled. She nodded, like Troy, signaling to the girl in the audience that the 'plan was a go', as Chad had called it earlier.

Ashley saw the nod, and got up as Gabriella and the kindergartner that had beat Kelsi earlier were walking up to the stage. The teacher turned around.

"Is there anything you need?" The teacher asked, her voice etched with concern. Ashley had begun to sway, putting on a really good act. Her face was even a bit pale.

"I- I f-feel sick." Ashley stuttered, holding her stomach.

"Can we get a trashcan over here?" The teacher asked, going to the ill-looking four-year-old. A student went and grabbed a trashcan from the corner of the spacious room, scurrying to get it to the teacher.

"Thank you, dear," The teacher smiled warmly at the child, turning her attention back to Ashley. "Do you need to go to the nurse?" She asked, feeling the preschooler's forehead.

"Y-yes." Ashley nodded, taking deep breaths. She was being an excellent actress.

"Well, you don't have a fever, but it's best to get this checked out. Children, you can talk among yourselves while I take her to the nurse." The kindergarten teacher gently took Ashley's hand.

"Wait!" Gabriella called, running from her seat to the teacher. "Can I go?" She asked as sincerely as she could.

"Gabriella, honey, you need to stay here. You might catch was she has and get sick." Her mother said, coming up behind her.

"But mommy, she's my friend!" Gabriella responded, giving her mother a pleading look. Her mother sighed reluctantly.

"Okay. You can go." Her mother shook her head, but didn't have the heart to hold Gabriella back from a good friend.

"Thank you!" Gabriella squealed, and rushed out the door. However, it was not only Gabriella leaving, in fact, half the crowd was going with her…

**Callbacks**

The Evans twins finished their little 'duet', taking a bow as they receded off the stage. Their parents gave them a standing ovation, along with Ms. Darby, but the others in the crowd just politely clapped, looking slightly bored.

Ms. Darby stood up and stretched, looking around for Troy and Gabriella. They, however, were nowhere to be seen.

"Troy? Gabriella?" She asked lazily, somewhat hoping that the two would appear. Her number one pet peeve was lateness and she couldn't stand to have to wait for the two to show up.

"No one? Okay, good. Done." She said with a shrug. Now she could save the trouble having to listen to two more four-year olds singing Christmas carols.

"Ms. Darby! We're here! We can sing!" Came the squeaky male voice from the doorway.

"Yeah! We're here!" Gabriella squealed, coming up behind him.

"As I have stated many times, music class will not wait for anyone." Ms. Darby huffed out of her annoyance.

"But Gabriella sings really good!" Troy pleaded.

"Well." Gabriella corrected.

"Really _well_." Troy concluded. He tried to smile for Gabriella, standing next to him. He dreaded the thought that they had gone through all the trouble of planning and faking accidents to get here, only to be shut out because they were simply five minutes late.

"You two don't even have your CD with you!" Ms. Darby was just about to make another excuse, as another four-year-old seemed to pop out of nowhere.

"Yes they do!" Kelsi said excitedly, waving around the CD that she had practiced with the two. After Kelsi had entered, so had some parents. As more of the crowds from both events went into the classroom, it was filled with voices. It seemed the nurse didn't want anybody disturbing her patients.

Out of the crowd, Taylor, Chad, and Jason waved from afar. It appeared that they had drawn everybody to where all the commotion was going on, hoping to get a positive response from the crowd.

"We'd be happy to do our performance again for the crowd." Sharpay pointed out with a fake smile.

"It is simply not possible. Also, I don't see your flashcards anywhere." Ms. Darby responded stubbornly.

"Well, that's _showbiz_." Ryan shrugged, trying to redeem himself to his sister, who was still angry with his antics earlier.

"Oh no you don't!" Kelsi warned. "They have flashcards. I had my mom make an extra stack, and I put them behind the chair over there." Kelsi pointed, and Gabriella went to the chair, finding the flashcards.

"You really don't want to do that." Sharpay warned.

"Oh yes, I do." Kelsi retorted, with confidence building in her for the first time in her four-year-old life.

"Now _that's_ showbiz." Ms. Darby replied, amazed that the small-brained children she taught were smarter and had a bigger vocabulary than she gave them credit for. Gabriella squealed once more and Troy's face lifted. They placed the flashcards onstage, in their designated place, and got ready.

Troy gave another encouraging smile to Gabriella, who weakly smiled back, taking her first look at all the people in the music classroom.

He cued Kelsi to play the CD, and the music began to start. Troy, however, began to see Gabriella on the other side, nervously fidgeting. He missed his part, going over to Gabriella to see what was wrong.

"I can't do it Troy. I can't with all these people." She whimpered.

"Just look at me. Remember? Like kindergarten." He smiled, and even as a four-year-old, Gabriella felt her heart melt. Troy cued Kelsi again; who patiently started the music player for the second time.

"Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer… Had a very shiny nose… And if you ever saw it… You could even say it glows!" He began, Gabriella watching him and holding up her flashcard that included a picture of a light bulb.

"Like a light bulb!" She said with more enthusiasm than she felt. She sang the next line, Troy holding up his flashcard. Soon, the song was in full swing with the crowd even singing along. This was just what they needed to get into the Christmas spirit.

In the back, two parents walked in, drawn in from hearing the voices of their children that had disappeared to go to the nurses' office awhile ago.

"Wow." Ms. Montez gasped. Was this really her Gabriella?

"That your daughter?" Jack Bolton asked.

"Sure is… Is that your son?" She asked out of curiosity.

"It's hard to believe, but yes." He said, still amazed.

"Then you're Jack Bolton, right?" She asked.

"Yes, I am. How'd you know?"

"Well, Troy was with your wife at the mall. She talked to me about the town, since we were new here."

"Oh, yes. Danielle mentioned meeting you to me," Jack Bolton added with a smile. "Is this amazing or what?" He asked, referring to the two on stage.

"I know. Gabriella has never had more than one friend in our many moves." She shook her head.

"Troy's had friends, but I can't believe how none of them ever affected him like this. I was wondering why he's been happy the past few weeks. Now I know why." Jack chuckled again, wondering if the two even knew their parents were standing in the back.

"I know what you mean. Gabriella's had a light in her eye that I've never seen before," Ms. Montez said, a smile crossing her face. "This is probably the start of a long friendship."

"I couldn't agree more." The two nodded, as the two four-year-olds on stage began the final strain of the song.

"Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer…You'll go down in history!" Gabriella finished.

"Like Columbus!" Troy held up his flashcard with a picture of three ships on it. The crowd applauded like crazy, standing up and encouraging the two on stage. They took a bow, both smiling ear splitting grins. Their parents quickly slipped out the door to the room, but Gabriella captured a glimpse of her mother with a huge smile on her face.

Sharpay and Ryan came out behind them, taking their bow. The crowd began to exit the room, and only the newly formed 'social group' of preschoolers stayed behind.

"That was the best thing I've ever seen!" Taylor gushed.

"The best thing I've ever _heard_!" Chad continued, referring to what Taylor said.

"Thanks." Gabriella smiled confidently. One glance at the digital clock on the desk for Ms. Darby told the four-year-olds to hurry it up, they didn't need to be late back to their activities.

"We better get going! Zeke said that he would try to get back right after the callbacks." Jason said, pulling Chad and Troy out the door. Sharpay and Ryan went to the bathrooms to change back into their normal clothes. Taylor, Kelsi, and Gabriella rushed back to their read-off. The quick good-byes by the basketball guys and the read-off girls were a bit depressing for the group, hoping they could enjoy the success longer, but they needed to get back to where they were… well… needed.

Gabriella, Taylor, and Kelsi got back to the read off, with little time to spare. As Gabriella walked into the room, some of the adults and kindergartners applauded her. She caught the gaze of her mother, shrugging when her mother gave her an amused smile. Before the events began, she went up to Ashley.

"Thanks so much for doing this." Gabriella gave her new friend a hug.

"No problem! I even got to watch part of it after the nurse took my temperature! You guys were great!"

"Thanks again." Gabriella giggled, the kindergarten teacher ushering her back to the front.

Jason, Chad and Troy were also back at their designated activity. Zeke had arrived moments before, being able to see part of their performance as well.

"You two will win for sure!" Zeke said as they got back onto the court.

"I hope so." Troy said with a large, goofy grin on his face.

Now was the moment of truce. They had beaten the first obstacle, but could they come back for a triple win? The read-off and the basketball game?

**That was so fun to write! Okay, so I decided, due to popular demand, that I'll most likely do more than just do one playtime pair. So… Now I need suggestions and some more nominations! Only one more chapter of the story (where the winners will be announced), then an epilogue, so hurry to vote!**

**Also, I posted another oneshot that's called 'A Flower for Your Troubles'. It's a Troyella, so hopefully many of you would like to read it. It got some really good feedback, so maybe you guys could add to that? –smiles-**


	12. Triple Win

**Posted a new story! 'A Day of Shopping'. It's full with my usual pairings, but instead of being a romance fic, it'll be a humor one. The next chapter of that will be up after my computer stops deleting random files…**

**Anyway, I'm back. Some of you are getting a bit antsy for a sequel, and I told you that I am not doing on, but all info on that will be posted at the beginning of the next chapter. So, read on! And, there's a little surprise at the end in the author's note. **

**The Read-Off**

"Gabriella! You did awesome!" Ashley ran up to the group heading back to the read-off, throwing her arms around a startled Gabriella.

"Well, thanks. And… thanks for everything you did." The four giggled, continuing on their journey to the library, where the read-off was being held.

"The nurse let me go early, since she told me I'd be okay because I didn't have a fever." Ashley explained.

"You're a great actress!" Kelsi added.

"Thanks. My cousin helped me with everything last night. Although she's in the read-off too, I really want you guys to win," She said, as if it was a secret. "But don't tell them I said that. Okay?"

"Sure." The girls agreed.

"Pinky swear." Gabriella added as all the girls' eyes widened.

"Pinky swear." Ashley finally concluded. They each shook the others' pinkies and entered the library. Many of the adults were smiling and applauding the four as they entered, mainly at Gabriella's performance.

Gabriella caught the eye of her mother as she got back up on her spot on the handmade stage. Her mother had an amused look on her face, and Gabriella blushed, realizing that her mother had been in the music room longer than she thought.

"Well, since all of that is over, I think we should continue." The kindergarten teacher said to the crowd, motioning for whoever was up to go up.

Gabriella and her matched opponent went to sit down, with Gabriella fidgeting. Just two more points…

The teacher began to write the words down on the board and the kindergartner rung the bell first, to Gabriella's dismay.

"The dog ate the food." The girl said.

"Correct." The teacher nodded, writing the new score down. It was now 28-29, kindergartners in the lead. Next came Taylor, who was confident that she could get that point back.

They sat down, and the teacher wrote the sentence down on the board. The two competitors had their little hands on the bells at the same time.

"Well… We have a true tie now. Both of you whisper your answers to me, to see if we can break the tie…" Taylor was first, whispering her answer, then the kindergartner.

"Now it's official, we have a tie," She said happily. "So we'll just move onto the next two." At that notion, Kelsi got up, along with one of the kindergartners that Gabriella had defeated before they had gone to the callbacks.

Much to Kelsi's luck, the sentence was from a book she'd read earlier, and she got the point back for their team.

Now, it was the final tiebreaker. Gabriella gulped and went up to her seat in front of the board.

"Okay you two, this sentence might be a little hard to read, but this is the tiebreaker, so it's is supposed to be hard." The kindergarten teacher's remark added to little Gabriella's nervousness.

But as the teacher wrote down the sentence, Gabriella recognized it. Once the teacher had the marker off the dry-erase board, Gabriella had her hand on the bell.

"The prince kissed the princess on the lips." Gabriella concluded, subconsciously thinking of Troy.

"Correct!" The teacher smiled. They all knew what that meant; the East Preschoolers had won! Taylor and Kelsi rushed over to Gabriella to squeal and jump around with. The teacher presented them with three blue ribbons, in which Taylor happily pinned to her shirt.

As the parents were gathering their children up to go home, the three East Preschool girls were pulling their parents out to the playground.

They had a basketball game to attend.

**Meanwhile…**

The game was now tied, 28-28, and one more basket would give either team the victory they longed for. Right now, the ball kept getting stolen by either team and Ms. Shannon was desperately trying to keep her eye on the ball.

Finally, Chad was able to break away from the scrabble with the ball, Troy right on his heels. A kindergartner got ahead of Chad, blocking him. He faked it to Zeke, passing it to Troy instead.

On impulse, Troy tried to shoot from his spot, but missed as it hit the backboard of the basketball net. Chad, on top of his game that day, caught the rebound with no trouble, passing it back to Troy.

This time, Troy knew where to shoot, so he did. The ball slid perfectly into the plastic hoop in the lowered net. Everyone, including the parents, were jumping around and hugging each other in victory. The read-off celebration was calm compared to this.

"Congratulations Wildcat!" Gabriella ran up to Troy, hugging his from behind.

"Oh, thanks! How did you guys do?" He asked, noticing the blue ribbon pinned to her shirt and smiled.

"We won too!" She unpinned the ribbon, showing it to Troy. He handed it back to her, and she pinned it right back onto her shirt. This was probably her most prized possession.

"I've got something for you. Can you wait just a second?" Troy asked and Gabriella nodded. As he ran over to his bag to get whatever he was getting, Gabriella spotted her friend running to her from across the court. Chad, however, seemed to have other plans for her.

Taylor was running full speed, flailing her arms in excitement. As she was passing Chad, he pulled her to him gently by her waist.

"So, you're going to let me show you my Lego Star Wars Starship later, right?" He asked, smiling broadly.

"Like on a playdate?" Taylor's eyes went as wide as saucers and her face flushed.

"Must be your lucky day!" Chad grinned again, releasing her from his grip.

"Here, I've got it!" Troy interrupted Gabriella's eavesdropping. Troy was hiding something behind his back, and he was just about to take it out…

"Gabriella!" Taylor interrupted the two, as Troy was less than a second away from giving his little gift to Gabriella.

"Taylor!" Gabriella mimicked and giggled, happy to see her friend, but disappointed in her timing.

"Chad asked me on a playdate to see his Star Wars Lego thingy! I have no idea what that is, but he thinks it's cool!" Taylor exclaimed, happily clapping her hands like Sharpay often did.

"That's awesome!" Gabriella smiled and Taylor ran off when she spotted her mother.

"Anyway-" Again, Troy was about to show Gabriella his surprise, but this time, it was Chad who interrupted them.

"Troy! Team voted you the game ball!" Chad said, shoving the ball into Troy's hands.

"Yeah, thanks…" He said, holding the ball and trying to keep his little surprise gift hidden. Finally, he gave up and waved good-bye to Gabriella, putting the surprise in his pocket, needing to go be with his team. Gabriella walked off happily, her winning jitters still keeping her excited. Although she was curious about the thing Troy had behind his back, she knew she'd find out eventually.

Soon, Gabriella spotted Sharpay, making a beeline to her. She prepared for the worst.

"I guess I'll be your backup incase you miss a practice or something. So break a leg." Sharpay said in the nicest voice that Gabriella had ever heard her talk to someone besides Troy in. Gabriella wasn't so sure about the 'break a leg' part, and her face obviously showed that.

"In showbiz, that means 'good luck'," Sharpay concluded. Gabriella smiled and nodded, spotting her mother talking to Troy's parents. She quickly ran over there, while Sharpay stayed behind, somewhat angry that Gabriella didn't stay behind to enjoy the moment.

Once Gabriella was gone, Zeke seemed to pop out of nowhere in front of Sharpay, worsening her good mood.

"Hey Sharpay." Zeke said, trying to start a conversation.

"Hi," Sharpay said icily back. One thing she wasn't in the mood to do was argue with a tall person.

"Look, I helped my mom make some Christmas cookies, and I saved one 'specially for you." Zeke nodded, hope filling his eyes.

"Ew." Sharpay spun on her heel and walked away, while Ryan, who was behind her, came up to Zeke.

"You did great out there," Ryan took the cookie from Zeke's still outstretched arm. "I'll make sure this gets to her, okay?"

"Okay, thanks." Zeke smiled, thankful Ryan was trying to help. At least Sharpay would listen to him… Or so he thought. Zeke walked off, scanning the crowd for his mother.

After many hugs and congrats, Troy and Gabriella were finally reunited near the edge of the bleachers.

"So, I was going to give this to you earlier, but we kind of got sidetracked…" Troy handed Gabriella a folded piece of paper. She carefully opened it.

_Congrats, Gabriella! I am really glad you are my friend!_

_Troy_

Under it two necklaces were taped, Gabriella standing still, shocked.

"They're friendship necklaces." Troy explained, taking the tape off.

"They're pretty!" Gabriella gushed. The necklaces were something you'd expect a little kid to wear, thick silver chains with each one having half of a red music note on it. One said 'Friends' and the other said 'Forever' on it. Gabriella chose the one that said 'Forever on it. The two put the necklaces on, all smiled.

Quickly, before anyone could interrupt, Gabriella quickly hugged Troy and put a wet kiss on his cheek. In awe, Troy rubbed the spot where she'd kissed him.

"What did ya do that for?" He asked in a daze.

"Because in movies, after the boy gives a girl jewelry, they're supposed to kiss," Gabriella shrugged. "I found it fitting."

"But they're normally boyfriend and girlfriend in all the movies." Troy added with a smug smile.

"Oh… I can't date till I'm sixteen." Gabriella giggled at Troy's goofy looking smile.

"Then this can be our little secret until we're sixteen," Troy whispered.

"Okay." Gabriella giggled again, pulling Troy back into the commotion of the triple victory. After all, they were the stars of the three victories.

There were still some kindergartners there, but not many. Most had left with their parents and only few remained still waiting. All the preschoolers were still there, celebrating. School wasn't supposed to get out for another two hours for the preschoolers, but the kindergartners got to go home early because of the early release due to Christmas break.

Ms. Shannon blew her whistle, silencing the crowd.

"Congratulations to all! Kindergartners still here, please find your teacher and she will bring you back to your classroom for your parents to pick you up there. My class, we are still in school, so please head back to the room. Parents wishing to take their children home early, I ask for you to give us just a couple of minutes. We are going to have a little party to celebrate the break." As soon as she was done, the crowd began to thin out.

Once all the kindergartners not already picked up were ready to cross the street with their teacher, the preschoolers filed inside for their party. All were very excited, hearing rumors Zeke helped his mom bake Christmas cookies.

And, of course, it was time to find out who would win for the best playtime pair.

Guess what? We get another chapter! 

**Next will be all about to playtime pairs and the Christmas party, which will be kind of like the preschool version of 'We're all in this Together'. Of course, it'll be cuter. **

**And, unlike Disney, I added a kiss in there! It wasn't like a real kiss, but it was cute, nonetheless. **

**So… You still have time to suggest a category for another playtime pair while voting for your favorites. Also, if you want a laugh, I wrote the first chapter of a humor story (I mentioned earlier), so go check that out (after you review, of course –grin-). **


	13. Cookies

**-sniffle- Last chapter! Well, then there's the epilogue, but that's really just going to be a cute bonus chapter.**

**As for sequel information… Well I don't plan on doing one. Making something to do with jobs and a country club would be difficult (which is what the sequel to HSM will be), and the whole purpose of the story was just to make a… well, Little High School Musical. BUT, I might post a series of oneshots that would follow the gang from the first day of kindergarten to the last day of high school. Can't make any guarantees, but it might happen. **

**Thanks for making this story the funnest thing I've ever written! **

The class piled into the room, sitting down on the floor and waiting. This, after all, would determine who would go home with cookies today.

"Who do you think will win?" Kelsi squealed, coming to sit down by the girls.

"I don't know! We've all be really good this week, though." Gabriella noted, playing with the necklace on her neck.

"What's that, Gabriella?" Taylor asked, noticing the necklace.

"Oh, this. Troy gave it to me. It's our friendship necklace." Gabriella showed it to Taylor, and the girls began to squeal even more.

"He gave you jewelry! That's so sweet!" Kelsi clapped.

"Yeah! Just like in the movies!" Taylor jumped. Gabriella decided to leave out the kiss… That was something she'd like to be her and Troy's secret for a little bit.

Sharpay entered the room, it quieting down. Miss Shannon hadn't arrived yet, probably talking to a parent outside.

"What's everybody looking at me for?" She asked in an unusually nice voice.

"Aren't you mad?" Chad blurted out.

"No. Today I realized that we wouldn't have gotten this way unless we stuck together." She shrugged.

"So we're all stars of the show?" Ashley asked hopefully.

"Yup." Sharpay giggled.

"Hey, we're all in this together." Ryan added in, the others nodding in agreement. They _were_ all in it together.

After all, this might just happen to end up their graduating class. They might as well get along, because they had thirteen years to look forward to each other to.

As all the children were cheering, their teacher entered the room.

"Oh wow! You all must be very excited!" She said with enthusiasm.

"Yes!" The class said back, a chorus of giggles erupting from the room.

"So, are we ready to announce our best playtime pair?" The young teacher asked, the other kids clapping and cheering. "Well, since we are, I'd like to start off with a little surprise for all of you. Since Zeke's mother made a whole batch of cookies, and I wanted to be fair, I'm going to announce the playtime pairs that I think deserve some recognition." Before she could go on, a little hand shot up in the air.

"Yes, Chad?" She asked.

"What's recignasion mean?" Chad asked, struggling and failing to say 'recognition' right.

"It means attention." Taylor replied.

"Oh! I get it!" Chad jumped up excitedly.

"So, if you will all pair up, I would like to start." Miss Shannon waved her hands around like Ms. Darby does, the preschoolers giggling at their teacher's imitation. Just a week ago, they would have dreaded going to their playtime partner, but now they were really excited to begin. They had made so many new friends.

"We all settled?"

"YES!" The class said again, getting impatient.

"Okay, for best overall… Troy and Gabriella!" Gabriella squealed in delight, pulling Troy up as she ran up to their teacher. Taylor and Kelsi seemed to be having an unannounced clapping contest, because the two continued to try to beat each other in loudness.

Gabriella and Troy were presented a tray of cookies, and they looked in awe at the Christmas decorated sugar cookies. Gabriella finally chose hers, a snowman with white frosting and chocolate chips for eyes. Troy, taking a bit longer, picked out a red iced stocking shaped cookie, with green sprinkles littering the cookie.

After the two finally chose, the others were getting antsy to hear who the other winners were. After all, there were cookies at stake here.

As Troy and Gabriella sat down, the little Gabriella gave Troy a quick glance, to discover half the cookie was already in his mouth. She shook her head and chuckled. She didn't know if she could eat her cookie; it was too pretty.

"Now, let's see… Who will be the most improved playtime pair?" Their teacher asked, the little kids crossing their fingers in good luck. "Chad and Taylor!"

Taylor's eyes widened and it was Chad who squealed like the girl. They both ran up to the teacher, choosing their cookies. Taylor took one that looked like a candy cane, with simple white and red frosting, but it appealed to Taylor. Chad, like Troy, decided on the stocking.

However, unlike Troy, Chad already had the whole cookie gulped down before him and Taylor arrived at their spots. Taylor gave him a look and began to nibble around the edges of her cookie. She had to admit, it was really good.

"Now, for our 'Most Different' playtime group, is Zeke and Sharpay!" The students all gaped at the couple, running up to the teacher. They, of all people, thought that they were the least likely to get an award today.

Although, Sharpay wasn't complaining any. She was curious as to what Zeke's cookies tasted like, and now she could eat one and give up her stubborn act. She chose a Santa Clause cookie that was sprinkled with sugar to add the cotton ball affect that you couldn't do with icing. Zeke, like Taylor, chose a candy cane. After all, he had especially helped by cookie cutting all the candy cane cookies.

"Next up… Our best-behaved couple…" The teacher paused, all the children holding their breath and crossing their fingers. "Jason and Kelsi!"

The class again applauded their classmates, Kelsi and Jason going up to the basket of cookies to choose their own. Kelsi chose a stocking, while Jason chose a Santa Clause. Happily, they went and took their seats back where they had been sitting.

"Do you guys want me to go on?" Ms. Shannon asked innocently, her class begging for more.

"YES!" They cried again, their teacher emitting a giggle.

"Okay! Now, it's for our 'Quietest' playtime pair-"

"Pick me!" Chad yelled.

"That's not being quiet, Chad!" Taylor snapped. "Plus, we already won something." Their teacher chuckled.

"Yes, Chad. She does have a point."

"Oh." Chad shrugged and quieted down.

"As I was saying, our Quietest group is… Ryan and Ashley!" Ms. Shannon smiled at the astonished looks on her two shyest students' faces. Slowly, as if to cherish the moment, Ryan got up and pulled Ashley along with him.

Finally, they fully took in the situation as they approached the cookie basket. Ashley let out a small squeal, hugging Ryan tightly. They took their cookies; each getting a candy cane shaped one, and went back to their spots.

Ms. Shannon went on, naming a special award for every playtime group that was in her classroom. The children, however, didn't notice. That's what their teacher had hoped. She wanted everyone to get something special, but she also wanted to make sure they felt it was a special award meant only for them.

Finally, the last awards were called, the class getting antsy to go home. After all, they were about to get let out for Christmas break.

"This has been a wonderful first half of the school year, and thanks to all of your for making it this way," Their teacher began, letting the parents into the room. "Through all of this, the game, the read-off, and the try-outs, it's been one heck of a week."

The parents nodded in agreement. Their kids had managed to fill them in off all the details of that week.

"When can we get the schedule for the practices for the winter play?" Gabriella's mother asked.

"Schedules will be sent to your houses. Even those of you that didn't sign up will probably get a card inviting you to the play." The teacher explained. All the parents nodded.

"I heard that we will do pictures for their kindergarten yearbook before they start it. Are those going to happen next semester?" Sharpay and Ryan's mother asked, wanting to start shopping for a matching outfit for her twins.

"Yes, but we will start doing those at the end of the year. There will also be another taken a few months into their kindergarten year. This will just give you guys a choice as to which one you like better."

"Okay, thanks." The twins' mother smiled.

"Anything else?" Their teacher asked, and there was silence. "Okay, well, I guess you guys can go now! Happy holidays!" She happily said as the parents exited the room with their children.

Once they were outside, the kids were saying their last good-byes to their friends, making sure that each knew the others' phone numbers.

"Gabriella!" Troy screeched, as Gabriella was about to get strapped into her car seat.

"What?" Gabriella happily hopped down from her spot, running past her mother to meet her friend.

"My parents want to know if you want to spend Christmas at our house?" Troy asked. "Since most of your family lives far away…"

"Really?" Gabriella's eyes sparkled and she ran to ask her mother. Curiously, her mother walked over to Troy's parents, his mother arriving minutes before.

"Is this four-year-old chatter I'm hearing, or is this a real offer?" Gabriella's mother chuckled, along with Troy's parents.

"No, I heard from Troy that your family lives far away, and so going away for Christmas is out of the question. So, I told Troy to go ask you. I guess he decided to ask Gabriella first." Troy's mother chuckled.

"I'd love to… But we don't want to impose…" Ms. Montez shrugged.

"Oh, no! That wouldn't be it at all! Jack's family lives a long way away, and my remaining parent has Alzheimer's disease, so we go and visit her on Christmas Eve. It's just been us three every Christmas. This year, we're adding our daughter in the mix." Mrs. Bolton explained.

"Congratulations on your daughter. I forgot to tell you that." Gabriella's mother smiled.

"Thanks! She'll be six months old next month. Although, Troy thinks it's been so much longer." The parents laughed. Troy rolled his eyes.

"She cries too much." He wrinkled his nose, causing the parents to laugh even more.

"Troy, hun, you kept us up all hours of the night. You were a tad bit worse." Troy's mother cracked an amused smile.

"Humph." Troy folded his arms across his chest and frowned.

"It's okay, Troy. Gabriella was just like that, too." Gabriella's mother grinned.

"Momma!" Gabriella complained.

"I guess that's our cue to go." Troy's dad laughed again.

"Yes, I think it is," Gabriella's mother took her daughter's hand. "You have our apartment number, right?" She asked.

"Yes. You gave it to me at the mall," Mrs. Bolton waved good-bye. "And there's a house for sale next to ours, if you guys are going to be house shopping." She winked.

Gabriella gasped. Living next to Troy? Her newest and best friend she had ever had?

That would be a dream come true!

Troy had the same thoughts running through his head. The adventures they could come up with! There would be no limit!

And, thus, the preschoolers' adventures would never end. Singing talents would be discovered, playtime pairs would form into incredible relationships, and the events that took place in that one week would forever be known as the Little High School Musical.

Even throughout high school, the gang would never forget the events that drew them together.

But first, they were going to have to survive kindergarten.

**The End!**

**-----**

**Oh my! I never dreamed of ending this. Okay, well, I knew it'd happen, but I never thought I'd be so sad to end it!**

**Oh, and there's still the bonus chapter. **

**Well, maybe if you guys review some more… ;)**

**But wow… 163 reviews? If my chapter reviews keep at a steady pace, this story will end at around 190 reviews (after this chapter and the bonus chapter is posted). Could you guys strive for that 200 mark? I'd love you forever! **

**And, after the bonus chapter, I will update once more with some story information. Some of you might be wondering where this idea came from, what my plans for the story were originally, and the final story stats. **

**Thanks author's note is long. I'll continue in the next update :)**

**Oh, and check out my new story, A Day of Shopping.**


	14. Picture Day

**Finally… The last chapter. This takes place right before their kindergarten year (about six months after the story). As promised, it's the Picture Day chapter, as mentioned by their teacher in the last chapter.**

**This should sum everything up, and all questions about the gang will be answered. ****I'm stalling… I'll get on with it… **

**Picture Day**

"Class, are we ready to go take our kindergarten pictures?" Miss Shannon asked her group of excited four-year-olds.

Waves of "Uh-huh!" "You bet!" "Duh!" swarmed through the group of students.

"Then, let's go! Alphabetical order by last name, please-"

"What's that mean?" Chad's hand shot up, but he spoke anyway, not bothering to wait for permission to speak. Although it was completely defeating the purpose of raising his hand, it made sense to him.

"It means- Nevermind," Their teacher sighed, taking a look at her class roll sheet. "Zeke, up front." Zeke snapped his head around from talking to Sharpay, and he sadly trudged up front. He wouldn't get to stand next to Sharpay.

"Then Troy, Jason, Zack, Chad," She continued. The four went up to the front, a bit angry they were separated from their friends. "Ryan, Sharpay, Ashley, Taylor," The next four also shrugged and went up to the front of the line. "Now, Gabriella and Kelsi." Their teacher said, continuing with a few more children to line up after the ten she had just lined up.

The children were now all in line, ready to go.

They went across the street to the elementary, where the pictures were being taken. The preschoolers looked in awe at the brightly colored halls of East Elementary school, the school they would be attending in a few short months.

They looked at the pictures colored by the other students, while peeking into the classes. There were desks! They'd get to sit in desks!

Finally, they reached the library, where the pictures would be taken. The cameraman smiled warmly at the group, more out of being happy that this was his last class to take pictures of. This had been one long day of taking pictures of screaming children.

The preschoolers lined up in a single file line, waiting to get their pictures taken.

"Zeke Baylor?" The cameraman asked as Zeke came up to the front. He went shyly to the bench and sat down.

"Now, Zeke, give me a huge smile!" The cameraman said with fake enthusiasm. Zeke, however, was scared by the notion, so he yelped and went behind the bench.

"Oh, Zeke, please come out," His teacher persuaded. "I promise that when we get back, you'll get to pass out those cookies that your mother made."

Cautiously, Zeke poked his head outside the safety of the underside of the bench. "Really?" He asked.

"Really." Ms. Shannon concluded. Zeke sighed and sat back up on the bench.

"Okay, now tilt your head a bit, Zeke." Zeke tilted his head completely to the side, and his teacher ran over to him and corrected his posture. Finally, the picture was snapped and the four-year-old, or rather, now five-year-old, went to sit at one of the Library tables, waiting for his classmates.

"Troy Bolton," the cameraman called up. Troy ran up from his spot in the line outside the room to the bench and poised just right. There was only a little problem.

"Troy, dear, please smile." His teacher pleaded. This picture day was not starting up good.

"Nuh-uh. Chad says that tough guys don't smile." He refused stubbornly. Ms. Shannon blushed, hoping that the photographer realized that they weren't normally like this.

"Troy, do we need to get your friend Sharpay in here to get you to smile?" She asked, hoping that he had at least some kind of attraction to her. This, however, caused him to frown even harder. Ms. Shannon smiled to herself, feeling sneaky. "What about your next-door neighbor, Gabriella?" Troy blushed and his teacher knew she had him. She turned and acted like she was talking to someone. "Oh! Gabriella, hun, you need to wait outside. It's not your turn yet."

This caused Troy to snap his head around and flash a dazzling smile. The photographer caught it, Troy finally realizing the trick. He sighed in defeat and went to sit with Zeke.

"Jason!" Ms. Shannon called before the cameraman could do it.

"Here!" He said, jumping up to the bench. The teacher clucked her tongue at his appearance. Someone had messed up his well-groomed hair on the way over there.

The photographer handed Ms. Shannon a comb and she proceeded to comb his hair.

"No!" The boy screeched, trying to wiggle out of her grasp. "Chad said it's cool to have messy hair!" Ms. Shannon sighed.

"Chad says plenty of things. I'm sure that your parents would like it more if you had nice hair." She said, finishing with his hair. Jason pouted, but once his teacher made a silly face he perked up and smiled.

"They're not usually like this." She blushed again as she explained to the photographer. He smiled sincerely for the first time that she had been there.

"It's alright. Pictures always seem to bring out the worst in kids." He chuckled, while Chad came jumping onto the picture set. Ms. Shannon rolled her eyes, seeing that his hair was too far-gone and that he was holding a basketball.

"Chad, can you give me the ball?" She asked politely.

"I wanna take my picture with it!" Chad protested.

"But this is for your kindergarten yearbook. You need to look nice."

"But- but-" He continued to protest, but his basketball had already been taken from him. Now, to get him to smile. Ms. Shannon giggled despite herself. She pretended to juggle with one basketball, dropping it on purpose to look like a clown. Chad was holding back laughter as the photographer caught him with a smile.

Like Troy, Chad sighed in defeat and went to sit with the others.

"Ryan Evans." The cameraman read off of his roll sheet. Ryan came bouncing into the room seconds later, in an outfit that looked like a boyish version of his sister's. Once he was seated and poised, he couldn't sit still. He kept adjusting something or he would see something that needed to be fixed.

"Ryan, you look fine." His teacher sighed.

"But this is what Sharpay does before she gets her picture taken, and her pictures always turn out better." Ryan explained.

"You look fine," His teacher comforted, giggling. It wasn't because she'd have to talk Sharpay to sit still next, it was that Ryan was trying to look good. The first boy so far to do that. The others had just wanted to look 'cool'.

Ryan seemed to believe his teacher and reluctantly smiled. After a bright flash, a stumble over to the table of the students that had already gotten their picture taken, and another named being called, Sharpay strode into the room.

To her teacher's pleasant surprise, Sharpay didn't move, she posed and sat still. However, she had a pout on her face.

"Sharpay, what's the matter?" Her teacher soothed. Ms. Shannon was not good at convincing people to do something, but soothing and comforting words worked wonders on her class.

"My sister didn't listen to me this morning. She acted like she didn't care." She said stubbornly.

"I'm sure she does, Sharpay. She's a teenager, though. You have a brother, don't you?" This comment caused Sharpay to frown even more. "Well, I'll make a deal with you, Sharpay."

"That would be?" Sharpay's eyes widened with interest.

"When we get back, Zeke's mom baked some cookies, and I will let you have one first." She bargained.

"Ginger Snap or Snickerdoodle?" Sharpay's eyebrows shot up.

"Snickerdoodle." Ms. Shannon confirmed. Not a second later, Sharpay turned and put a huge smile on her face. Although she was a bit disappointed to find that she had been the only girl to be called so far, so she had to sit with the boys for awhile.

Next was Ashley, who was upset because Ryan had said he was upset because Sharpay was upset. After bringing Ryan over to make Ashley smile, the picture was taken.

This was turning out to be one heck of a picture day.

"Taylor Mckessie?" Taylor ran in, plopping on the bench. Ms. Shannon prayed that she would have no trouble with Taylor, one of her best students. But, even good students have their down days, and this was Taylor's.

She refused to smile, like the rest of the class had. When confronted, Taylor huffed and crossed her arms across her chest before answering.

"Chad says that only boys can be cool and not smile, so I want to show him that girls can too." Taylor simply replied.

"Taylor, Chad did smile."

"He did! That- that-" Taylor stormed, but soon realized that everyone was waiting for her to smile. Giving in, she smiled and quickly got up and ran off.

Gabriella didn't need her name called, waiting at the door patiently looking on. She slowly trudged over to the seat and sat down.

Like the rest of her classmates before they got their picture taken, she wasn't smiling.

"Gabriella, what's wrong?" Ms. Shannon asked while emitting a sigh.

"Troy was too busy earlier for me to give him the invitation to my birthday party." She said, a fine mist welling up in her eyes.

"Oh, sweetie, he lives next door to you. Can't you just give it to him anytime?" Her teacher asked.

"Yeah, but I wanted him to be the first one to get an invitation. I made him one special." Gabriella sighed.

"Troy," Her teacher called, the boy's ears perking up. "Can you come over here?" Troy immediately jogged over from the table he was at with Zeke to his teacher.

"Gabriella. Go ahead." Ms. Shannon smiled. Gabriella jumped up and took an invitation from the small purse she had that matched her dressy outfit. Troy read it and reread it, smiling larger every second. He hugged his friend, giving her a thumbs up when she went back down to get her picture taken.

It was no Kelsi's turn. Ms. Shannon began to expect the worse, since it seemed like everyone didn't want to smile today.

However, Kelsi sat down, did what the photographer said, smiled, and got her picture taken with no trouble.

Her teacher wanted to run up to her and hug her. Of course, she didn't.

The rest of the students went, each having another problem. An hour later and all pictures were finally taken. On the way back, Ms. Shannon allowed the children to group up in pairs of two to walk across the street. Troy and Gabriella, of course, paired up and were chatting most of the way back.

"Is your mommy gonna work late tonight?" Troy asked, Gabriella nodding. "My Momma said that we could make up the guest bedroom, and since she might work all night, you can stay most of the night." Troy offered.

"I'd love to!" Gabriella giggled. Since she had moved in next to Troy, they were inseparable. When his parents were out of town, he would stay over at her house, and when her mom had to work late, she got to stay at his house.

This summer, they were even going to build a tree house with the others in her backyard. It turns out Taylor lives a block over and Chad lives a block away in the other direction. It would be their clubhouse.

This summer was going to be a blast.

**Xxx**

**Wow. It's really over. –sniffle- **

**And… There will be a little sequel like thingy. It won't really be a sequel. More like a companion fic. A bunch of random oneshots that will take place as they grow older! **

**So. ****Make me happy and get this over 200? D Just twenty reviews! **

**Come on! It's so easy to press that little review button…**


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